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THE 

STORY OF AGRICULTURE 

IN THE UNITED STATES 



ALBERT H. SANFORD 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
LACROSSE, WISCONSIN 



D. C. HEATH AND CO., PUBLISHERS 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



.S3 



Copyright, 191 6, 
By D. C. Heath & Co. 

TC6 




APR -8 1916 



PREFACE 

Those who are acquainted with the present state of historical 
investigation in this country know well that the great field of 
agricultural history has been by no means thoroughly explored. 
Consequently, a complete history of agriculture in the United 
States is not yet within the range of possibility. 

In this book, the author has hoped merely to gather, as far 
as they are now available, the more important facts of our 
agricultural history, and to enliven the account with interest- 
ing details and descriptions. The idea that a history such as 
this should be accessible to those whose lives are associated 
with the occupation of agriculture is the result, in part, of the 
author's interest in the present-day movement for rural better- 
ment; it follows logically, also, from the acceptance of the 
educational doctrine that much of the material for the instruc- 
tion of young people should be drawn from their environment. 

While/{he book is intended primarily for boys and girls who 
live on farms\the author hopes that it will be of interest to 
others, many of whom may have had experiences similar to 
those here recorded, /its best purposes will be fulfilled if the 
reading of the book makes the study of American history more 
vital and significant, if it adds dignity to the life and work of 
the farm, and if it helps to furnish a mental background upon 
which the routine of daily duties will appear more pleasant 
and the possibilities of rural improvement more real.\ 

The author is especially indebted to Professor W. J. Trimble, 
of the North Dakota Agricultural College, through whose his- 
torical skill and practical knowledge of agriculture many errors 



iv PREFACE 

have been avoided; and to Professor C. R. Rounds, of the 
Milwaukee State Normal School, whose kindly criticism has 
wrought improvement in both the form and the substance of 
the chapters. Thanks are also due to other friends who read 
parts of the manuscript and contributed suggestions; among 
the^ are Professors E. L. Bogart and John G. Thompson, of the 
V ersity of Illinois; O. M. Dickerson, of the Winona Normal 
. , .ol; nd H. N. Sherwood, of the LaCrosse Normal School. 
Mrs. T.,.rC Douglas contributed valuable details for the 
accounts f nd on pages 153-158 and 275-277. Encourage- 
ment and suggestions have come from still others, including 
the publi hers, whose assistance is hereby gratefully acknowl- 
edged. 

Numerous maps and illustrations have been obtained through 
the courtesy of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., the Wisconsin 
Agricultural Experiment Station, The International Harvester 
Company, and The LaCrosse Plow Company. For the plan 
of buildings at Mt. Vernon (p. 85) credit is due The Century 
Magazine. 



Albert H. Sanford. 



LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 
December, 19 15 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Indians as Farmers i 

II. The First Farmers of Virginia 12 

III. The Beginning of Agriculture in New England . ^ ^4 

IV. The Middle Colonies and the Carolinas . 3/ 
V. Some General Features of Colonial Agricu. 47 

VI. Colonial Agriculture, North and South J') 57 

VII. The Back Country 70 

VIII. George Washington — Farmer 76 / 

IX. First Improvements in Agriculture 92 • 

X. Pioneer Farmers of the West 100 

XI, The Rise of Cotton 124 

XII. The Story of the- Plow 136 ^ 

XIII. When Reapers were New 144 

XIV. Prairie Agriculture 159 

XV. Agriculture in the New Possessions 173 

XVI. The Cotton Kingdom 189 

XVII. Agriculture and Civil War 200 \/ 

XVIII. The Westward March of Wheat 209 

wXIX, Hard Times for Farmers 224 

XX. Range and Ranch 235 y 

XXI. The Age of Machinery 246 <^ 

XXII. Animal Husbandry and Dairying 266 

XXin. The New Era of Scientific Agriculture . . . 282 

XXIV. The Department of Agriculture 304^ 

XXV. The New South 323 

XXVI. Irrigation and Dry Farming 332 

XXVII. The Business of Farming 345 x, 

XXVIII. Rural Life 362 

XXIX. Prosperity and Problems 378-^ 

Index 387 



THE STORY OF AGRICULTURE 
IN THE UNITED STATES 

CHAPTER I 
THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 

The first farmers in America were the Indians. The 
tribes that were found upon the Atlantic coast by the 
earhest explorers and settlers depended largely upon 
agriculture for their living. While they frequently sepa- 
rated into bands and left their villages to go upon hunting 
excursions, they returned and planted their crops regu- 
larly in the springtime. Besides game and fish and the 
crops from their fields and gardens, they obtained much 
food from the wild nuts, fruits, and roots that grew 
abundantly in the forests. 

De Soto saw the cornfields of the southern Indians. 
Cartier and Champlain found the tribes on the St. Law- 
rence River planting corn. Henry Hudson said that 
while on the Hudson River he ''saw a house well con- 
structed of oak bark and a great quantity of maize or 
Indian corn and beans of last year's growth, and there 
lay near the house for the purpose of drying, enough to 
load three ships, besides what was growing in the fields." 

It will be remembered that some of the first English- 
men who tried to settle in America were sent out by Sir 
Walter Raleigh. One of the leaders of their unsuccessful 
colony on Roanoke Island said that the Indian King 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



''sent us divers kinds of fruites, Melons, Walnuts, Cucum- 
bers, Gourdes, Pease, and divers rootes, and fruits very 

excellent good, and 



of their country 
corne, which is very 
white, faire, and well 
tasted, and groweth 
three times in five 
moneths : in May 
they sow, in July 
they reape; in June 
they sow, in August 
they reape; in July 
they sow, in Septem- 
ber they reape : onely 
they cast the corne 
into the ground, 
breaking a little of 
the soft turfe with 
a wooden mattock, 
or pickaxe: . . , 
they also have 
Beanes very faire 
of divers colors and 
wonderful plentie: some growing naturally, and some in 
their gardens." 

When the Pilgrims were searching for a good place to 
build their homes, they found on Cape Cod mounds in 
which the Indians had buried their corn for future use. 
This they took and afterward paid for; it helped them to 
live through that first terrible winter. Later, Squanto, 
the good Indian friend of the Plymouth settlers, showed 




An Indian Village 

This picture occurs in The new found land of 
Virginia by Thomas Hariot, who was a member 
of the party sent out by Raleigh in 1585. They 
attempted to settle upon Roanoke Island. 



THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 





Flint Spades and Hoe 



them how to plant corn and advised them to put into each 
hill a fish as fertilizer. 

The settlers at Jamestown in Virginia were saved from 
starvation by the Indian corn that John Smith bought — • 
at one time seven hogsheads and later several hundred 
bushels. It was through the wisdom of John Smith, who 
learned from the Indi- 
ans their method of 
raising corn and who 
compelled the settlers 
to cultivate it, that 
Jamestown became our 
first permanent settle- 
ment. 

One may well ask, 
how could the Indians 
raise their crops of corn by the hundreds and thousands 
of bushels, besides great quantities of beans, peas, squashes, 
pumpkins, melons, tobacco, and gourds, without any of the 
iron and steel implements that our farmers use? Instead 
of the iron hoe, a flat stone was chipped to the proper 
shape and fastened to a handle by means of thongs or 
withes. A broad shell, or the shoulder blade or antler of 
a deer, might be used as the blade of this crude hoe. 
Sometimes a sapling was found that had a strong root 
standing out at right angles to the stem; the trunk was 
used as a handle and the root was shaped like a pick or 
hoe and perhaps hardened in the fire. 

The English settlers found that the Indians generally 
selected the richest soil for their fields. When it was 
necessary to clear the ground, they first pulled out the 
underbrush and then girdled the trunks of the trees near 



4 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the ground; that is, with their stone hatchets they hacked 
a belt around each tree through the bark and sapwood. 
This killed the trees; the leaves withered and let the 
sunlight through. Later, the dead trees and stumps were 
burned. 

In the spring the dry weeds of the fields were gathered 
into piles and burned; then with their rude hoes the 
Indians dug shallow holes, three or four feet apart, into 




A Stone Hatchet Tied on with Thongs 

each of which they dropped a few kernels of corn and a 
few beans. There were several varieties of corn, includ- 
ing the flint, sweet, and popcorn. Sometimes the seed 
was soaked before being planted. As the corn grew, it 
was hilled up, and the same hills might be used many 
years in succession. Between the corn hills the seeds of 
pumpkins, squashes, and peas were planted. When the 
corn ripened, the hungry flocks of wild birds became so 
troublesome that Indian boys and girls were stationed on 
platforms in the middle of the fields to frighten them 
away. Even then the corn frequently had to be picked 
before it was ripe. At harvest time the Indians gathered 
the ears in hand baskets and carried these to larger bas- 
kets, in which the corn was taken to the villages. When 



THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 



husking time came, among some of the tribes there 
were jolly husking bees, and anyone who found a red 
ear received two from each husker of the company. 

The Indians had many ways of cooking corn and also 
of keeping it for future use. Much of it was parched for 
use in winter or to be carried for food on their hunting 
trips. The Indian method of drying corn was to spread 
it out on mats in the sun, cover- 
ing it at night; or, to place it 
upon a low platform under 
which a slow fire was kept 
burning. Often the husks were 
merely turned back and braided 
together, and the strings of ears 
were then hung up to dry. 
Corn was stored by being put 
into a pit lined with reeds, 
mats, or bark. Or, a cave 
might be dug in the hillside 
where the ears would be carefully laid in layers with dried 
grass between. Some of the southern Indians built 
corncribs of small logs, raised from the ground and 
plastered inside with mud. 

The Indians were very fond of roasting corn on the cob. 
To do this they first dug a shallow trench and extended a 
long pole slightly above it, then leaned the ears against 
this pole over a fire in the trench. They had several 
ways of cooking green corn that was cut from the cob. 
It was sometimes mashed to a paste in a wooden mortar 
made by hollo'wing out the end of a stump or a block of 
wood. Cakes of this soft corn would then be wrapped 
in leaves and put into water that was made to boil by 




Indian Boiling Pot 



6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

placing hot stones in it. The water was held in large 

pots made from clay mixed with crushed shells and then 

burned in fire until hard. The corn cakes were eaten 

with oil made from the seeds of sunflowers, or with bear's 

grease. 

When hominy was made, the kernels were first soaked 

in lye made from wood ashes, as a means of loosening the 

hulls. The mass was then placed in a basket and soused 

in water to get rid of the hulls, which would float on the 

surface and could then be removed. If the hominy was 

pressed through a basket sieve, the result was a kind of 

meal, which could be dried. Later, this meal could be 

made into cakes and be either fried or boiled. 

Hard corn was cracked in a wooden or stone mortar 

and ground upon a stone that had a hollowed surface. 

It could then be sifted and the 

larger particles pounded or 

ground again. Beans and peas 

were boiled with the corn to 

make ''succotash." Squashes 

and pumpkins were boiled in 
Stone Mortar for Pounding ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^1 ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 
Grain 

der the embers of a fire or m 

a clay pit which had been made hot by a fire that was 

afterwards removed. These vegetables were often cut 

into rings and hung up to dry over a fire. 

The North American Indians did not cultivate the 

white potato. This was brought into the colonies from 

England, after having come originally from South America. 

The sweet potato was an important food crop among the 

southern Indians, however, and from them the whites 

learned to cultivate it. 




THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 7 

It is not certain that each Indian family owned its own 
field. Usually the cultivated lands were owned by the 
clan or tribe living in a village; but a certain tract was 
assigned to each family for cultivation. In Virginia each 
family also had a garden near its wigwam. It was com- 
mon for the Indians to work their fields together, each 
helping to cultivate the others' crops. Tobacco was an 
important Indian crop, and in most tribes it was culti- 
vated by the men and was usually smoked by them only. 
It was used in connection with religious ceremonies. 

Among the Indians the principal work in the fields was 
done by the women, but it should not be understood that 
the women did more than a fair share of all the work, or 
that they were slaves and drudges to the men. Hunting 
and fishing, the work of the men, were not sports, but 
serious and difficult tasks. Besides, the canoes, bows, 
arrows, and stone weapons and implements were made 
by the men; this required much time, skill, and patience. 
Then, with most tribes, wars were frequent and kept the 
men busy. Where there was less war, the men worked in 
the fields with the women. In addition, it was the duty 
of the men to spend much time in learning and conducting 
all the ceremonies of Indian government and religion. 
This was no small task, and took much of their time and 
strength. The squaws were aided in their farm work by 
the old men and the children. This occupied but a few 
weeks in the summer. But since the women also pre- 
pared the food and clothing, theirs was a busy life. 

The most intelligent Indians of the Atlantic coast were 
the Iroquois, who lived in what is now Central New York 
State. Here there were large towns surrounded by pali- 
sades. The fields of a town were sometimes one hundred 



8 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



or more acres in extent, and there were orchards of ap- 
ple, plum, and pear trees besides. During the French 
and Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War, the white 
men's armies more than once invaded this country; and 
it is reported that one expedition destroyed 160,000 
bushels of corn. 

The Indians of the Mississippi valley, no less than 
those of the Atlantic coast, were farmers, sometimes on a 




large scale. Agriculture was naturally more important 
in the South than in the North. Where the buffalo was 
more common, agriculture was less depended upon as a 
source of food. In the dry regions of the great plains and 
in the Rocky Mountains there were some tribes that car- 
ried on little or no agriculture, but considerable corn was 
raised by tribes Kving along the Missouri River. 

In the region now called New Mexico and Arizona the 
Indians carried on agriculture by means of irrigation. 
They had reservoirs and many miles of ditches. These 
were in some cases cut out of solid rock; and in one sandy 



THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 9 

region they were made seven feet deep and lined with 
day to hold the water better. It is thought that in the 
Salt River Valley of Arizona 250,000 acres were irrigated. 
Here were raised vast quantities of corn, sunflowers, 
cactus, yucca, mesquite beans, and agave. 

Among the Pacific Coast Indians there was little or no 
agriculture. They lived upon sea products (fish, clams, 
sea-grass, etc.), the abundant wild fruits, nuts, acorns, 
and grains, besides wild beasts and fowls. The early 
missionaries, instead of learning from these Indians as 
the early settlers of the Atlantic coast had done, found it 
necessary to teach them how to cultivate fields and to 
raise crops. 

Among some of the Indian tribes who lived about the 
Great Lakes, wild rice was the chief source of food. This 
plant grows in the shallow waters of streams, lakes, and 
swamps, and a great field was usually divided among 
the families of a tribe. Before the grain was ripe, the 
women went through it with their canoes, twisting and 
tying the growing stalks into bunches. This prevented 
the wind from blowing the ripened kernels into the water 
and made it more difficult for the birds to get at them. 

To harvest the grain two women went out in a canoe, 
one sitting in each end. One had a forked stick which 
she thrust down into the mud, and this guided and steadied 
the canoe. The other carried two sticks; one had a 
crook at the end, with which she bent the bundles of rice 
over the canoe; with the other she beat out the kernels 
until her end of the canoe was comfortably filled. The 
women then exchanged sticks and tasks, and so the 
other end of the canoe would be filled. To hull the rice, 
a few quarts were poured into a skin bag; this was placed 



lO 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



in a shallow hole in the ground and trodden upon. It 
was winnowed by being tossed up in the air when a 
breeze was blowing; or, a birchbark fan was used to 
blow the husks away. The rice was dried or parched by 
sun or fire, and was thus kept for winter use. 

The Indian's agriculture was closely connected with 
his religion. A religious festival was held at planting 




time, with prayers to Mother Earth for a good crop. 
Here is the address given before the council of elders 
of an Iroquois clan: 

''Great Spirit, who dwellest alone, listen now to the 
words of thy people here assembled. The smoke of our 
offering arises. Give kind attention to our words, as 
they arise to thee in smoke. We thank thee for this 
return of the planting season. Give us a good season, 



THE INDIANS AS FARMERS ii 

that our crops may be plentiful. . . . Preserve us from 
all diseases. Give strength to us that we may not fall, 
preserve our old men among us and protect the young. 
Help us to celebrate^ with feehng the ceremony of this 
season. Guide the minds of thy people, that they may 
remember thee in all their actions." 

Some tribes also had their thanksgiving harvest 
festival, which was a most joyful time, as it is with us. 

Such, in brief, was the agriculture of the Indians who 
lived north of Mexico. Through long ages, no one knows 
how long, these people had been slowly learning, without 
books, schools, or teachers, how best to till their soil 
aud raise their crops. Why had they not made more 
progress when America was discovered? Some think it 
was because they had no domestic animals except the dog. 
With cattle they might have become herdsmen and 
learned to make dairy products. With horses and oxen 
they would probably have learned to plow the land and 
so to raise larger crops. 

It was very fortunate for the white men that the 
Indians were to some extent farmers; otherwise, both 
Jamestown and Plymouth, and perhaps other settle- 
ments, would have perished. Indian agriculture was the 
starting point from which the English settlers in America 
made their successful beginning; thus it became, to a 
larger extent than is usually thought, the basis of our 
agriculture. In this chapter there are numerous instances 
of Indian practices that were adopted by the whites; 
and there were still others that will appear as the story of 
American farming proceeds. 



CHAPTER II 

THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 

When the first settlers of Virginia, about one hundred 
in number, were ready to start upon their long ocean 
voyage from England, they were given some good advice 
by the Council that had charge of their affairs. They 
were told to find the most wholesome and fertile place 
for a colony, and then to set a part of the men to work 
at once to prepare the ground and sow. Moreover, they 
were not to depend upon the seeds they brought over 
from England, but to obtain grain from the natives for 
seed, as that would be most likely to prosper. Had this 
advice been followed, the early history of Jamestown 
would have been quite different from what it was. How- 
ever, the Council was at fault also, for there seem to 
have been no farmers sent with the first shiploads. Few 
of those who came could wield the ax and hoe, and it 
was two years or more before a plow was brought from 
England. 

Although .there were great hopes of finding gold and 
pearls in Virginia, the officers of the London Company 
should have known that the settlers whom they sent out 
would need to get their support from the soil. In those 
days Englishmen were not accustomed to founding 
colonies in strange lands, and they had to learn by 
experience. 

The landing at Jamestown was made on May 14, 1607, 
but it seems to have been nearly the firs : of June before 



THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 



13 



much planting was done — too late to get the best crops. 
Some vegetables were planted (including potatoes and 
melons), and a small amount of wheat; also some pine- 
apples, cotton and orange seeds, — but no Indian corn. 
Englishmen called all the small grains "corn;" but they 
knew nothing of maize or Indian corn. This grew only 
in America, and the settlers here and in the other colonies 




Log Houses of Early Settlers 



had to learn how superior it was to English wheat as a 
means of support during the first years in this country. 
Wheat did not flourish at Jamestown. The climate 
was too warm and the soil too rich; so the stalks were 
rank and the heads small. During the first winter in 
Virginia, the colonists were obliged to depend upon food 
obtained from the Indians. Some of them bartered 
their hoes, axes, and guns for corn and game. 



14 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 




The second season saw little improvement over the 
first, though the settlers set about clearing land. Instead 
of following the Indian methods, the "gentlemen" 
settlers blistered their hands chopping down trees. This 

brought forth many 
oaths, for each of which 
the punishment was a 
can of cold water poured 
down the offender's sleeve 
at the end of the day. 
No corn was planted this 
spring (1608). The men 
were discouraged because 
no gold had been found; 
some wanted their crops 
to fail so they could re- 
turn to England. Then, 
the autumn, John 







_ (Richmond^, ^lUuJmilun 



WillKtinshurg 
VAjroW Pt. Comjort ^ 




in 



Map of Virginia 



Smith took charge of 
affairs and, by his in- 
fluence in securing corn from the Indians, saved the colony 
from starvation. The next spring (1609) Smith had 
two Indian prisoners teach the settlers how to raise corn, 
and forty acres were planted. Unfortunately, Smith 
was obliged to return to England that fall, and all the 
food was eaten as soon as it was ripe, instead of being 
saved for the winter. Some cattle, hogs, and chickens 
had also been brought from England, and these were 
next eaten. The settlers then ate their horses. Many 
died of starvation, and the survivors were about to 
return to England when Lord Delaware and more colonists 
arrived and stopped them. More cows and hogs were 



THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 15 

now brought over and in the spring of 161 1, under Gov- 
ernor Dale, corn was planted and a section between two 
rivers was fenced off, within which the cattle could be 
kept. 

It will be remembered that at first the settlers all 
worked for the London Company — that body of mer- 
chants and other investors in England who owned 
Virginia and expected to make money from it. The 
fields were worked in common, and everything produced 
in the colony went into a ''common store." This is one 
reason why agriculture did not succeed better at James- 
town in these first years. But this was changed when 
Governor Dale took charge of the colony in 161 1. 

Dale rented to some of the best among the settlers 
small tracts of land, three acres each, to work for them- 
selves, upon payment of two and one-half barrels of 
grain per year; but each man must still work for the 
company for one month during the year. This plan 
gave the men more incentive to raise good crops and to 
take care of their tools and stock. Later, each family 
of new settlers was given a house and lot of twelve acres 
free of rent for a year, besides tools and live-stock. It 
was a number of years before those who had been work- 
ing for the Company were given complete freedom and 
could get farms for themselves. 

In 161 2, John Rolfe, who afterward married Poco- 
hontas, began the cultivation of tobacco. A hundred 
years earlier, tobacco had been taken from the West 
Indies to Spain; and its use had extended from one 
country to another in Europe. There was great demand 
for it, and the price was high. It was soon found to be 
a very valuable crop, so the Virginia settlers planted it, 



1 6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

to the neglect of grains and vegetables. To its cultiva- 
tion they gave up their fields, their gardens, and even 
the streets of Jamestown. This, though very unwise, 
was quite natural, because, as John Smith said to the 
officers of the Company in England, a farmer could get 
six times as much profit from the same amount of land 
and labor by raising tobacco as he could by raising grain. 




Tobacco Field 

As a result, there was actually danger that the people 
would not raise enough corn for the necessary supply of 
food. Consequently, Governor Dale made a rule that 
no one should plant tobacco until he had sowed two 
acres of grain. Later, there was a law that each settler 
must keep in store enough grain for food through the 
winter. When the Indians were troublesome, and 
especially after the great massacre of 1622, the settlers 
were loath to plant corn because the fields made good 
ambushes for the red men. A law was then made requir- 
ing each parish or group of farms to support a pubhc 
granary, to which every person over eighteen years of 
age must contribute a bushel of grain yearly. 



THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 17 

When all the farmers in Virginia were raising as much 
tobacco as they possibly could, the result was that the 
price fell from three shillings a pound at the beginning, 
to one penny — only one thirty-sixth as much. This 
led to a number of laws that were enacted by the House 
of Burgesses. One provided that all the tobacco must 
be brought to warehouses that were located in convenient 
places. Here it was inspected by a committee of farmers, 
who ordered that all of poor grade should be destroyed. 
Later, one-half of the good tobacco was to be destroyed 
in order to keep up the price. Other laws hmited the 
number of leaves that might be gathered from each 
plant. Before 1680 the price had fallen to one-half 
a penny and the farmers were desperate. They tried to 
agree among themselves not to plant any at all for a 
year. This faihng, some lawless bands started to destroy 
the growing tobacco in the fields, and two hundred 
farms were devastated. These riots were finally put 
down by the militia. 

In the meantime, the Virginia farmers were trying 
some interesting experiments. A glance at the map of 
the world will show that Virginia lies in the same latitude 
as Spain, Italy, and northern Africa. Would it not be a 
fine thing, Englishmen thought, if we could get from 
Virginia the products we now buy from those countries? 
So they began the first year to plant pineapples and 
oranges. Frenchmen were brought over to begin grape 
raising, with a view to the making of wine, and a law 
was passed compelling every family to raise ten vines 
and to learn vine-dressing. The Virginians also tried 
to raise figs, lemons, almonds, olives, ginger, and sugar 
cane, but without success. The fact is that our eastern 



i8 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



coast has a climate quite different from that of southern 
Europe. The winds from the north and west come to 
Virginia over a great land area and are much colder in 
winter than those that prevail in the same latitude in 
Europe; consequently, the semi-tropical products do not 
thrive here. 

The Virginians also tried very hard to produce silk, 
and there were great expectations of enormous profits 
from this source. The mulberry tree grew wild in Vir- 
ginia, and silkworms were brought from Europe; some 




Silkworm, Mulberry Leaves, Moth, and Cocoons 

of these were frost-bitten in the winter. The law obliged 
every man to plant six mulberry trees annually for 
seven years. Later, a premium of five thousand pounds 
of tobacco was offered to every person producing one 
hundred pounds of silk; this not having any result, the 
premium was raised to ten thousand pounds of tobacco 
for fifty pounds of raw silk, and still later fifty pounds of 
tobacco were offered to the producer of one pound of 
silk. One reason for the failure of these plans is the fact 
that the care of silk cocoons and the winding of raw 
silk required much attention and some skill. But when 



THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 19 

all the members of the farmer's family were fully occupied 

in the tobacco and grain fields, who was left to care for 

the silk? In the countries of southern Europe there 

were plenty of hands for such work, but not so in Virginia. 

Other products that Enghshmen wanted very much 

and had to buy, in part, of other countries were hemp and 

flax. A law of 1619 required that each family must have 

at least one hundred plants of flax; but these crops were 

raised only to a small extent. Rice, indigo, and cotton 

were also tried, but the crops did not succeed. 

^'The colonists were more successful in raising live-stock. 

The cattle, sheep, and hogs were allowed to run in the 

woods and open glades, where 

there was abundance of food ^-^—^ 

for them, and they increased 

rapidly in numbers. At first 

the Indians killed them; to 

avoid this the hogs were put 

upon an island in the James 

River, known as Hog Island. 

Later, the animals runninar at ^ ,. „, ^ 

' ^ ° One Form or Worm Fence 

large in the woods became 

wild and were hunted, just as deer were. The wolves 
kept the sheep from increasing, and later the colonial 
government gave bounties for the killing of wolves. 
Of course, the roving cattle and horses got into the 
cornfields; this made it necessary for every farmer to 
fence his fields or else not expect to get damages for 
the injury done by his neighbors' animals. Since there 
were no sawmills, and iron nails were expensive, fences 
must be built of rails spHt from the forest trees. Here 

rail fences in America. 




1/ 



20 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

It has already been stated that in the beginning the 
settlers of Virginia did not own the land they cultivated. 
This belonged to the London Company. Its product was 
intended first to support the people of the colony, and the 
surplus, if there was any, was to be the profit of the 
Company. Under Dale, some settlers were allowed to 
rent tracts as mentioned before, and after he left, in 1616, 
these and other settlers who had paid their way to America 
were given tracts of one hundred acres each. Soon after, 
members of the Company, having invested money in the 
enterprise, were given one hundred acres for each share 
of stock that they owned. Later, another hundred acres 
were added. Some of the members who did not come 
to America sold this right to settlers. 

Another way in which land came to be owned was 
under the rule that any man who paid his own way to 
the colony might have fifty acres free; and he might also 
have fifty acres for every person that he brought to the 
colony. This was called a "head right," and in this way 
the greatest number of settlers got their farms and some 
settlers obtained very large tracts of land. 

At this time there were thousands of paupers and un- 
employed persons in England. The poorhouses were 
full of children whose parents could not support them, 
and the jails were full of debtors and criminals. Now, 
anyone who would pay the expense of transporting such 
persons to Virginia was entitled to fifty acres of land for 
each one brought over as a servant. The latter agreed to 
serve for a term of four or six years, or more, without 
pay, as recompense to the one who had paid his passage. 
He thus became an ''indentured servant." In this way 
many thousands of men, women, and children escaped 



THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 21 

from the poverty and hard conditions of their hfe in 
England. The greater part of them became laborers 
upon the farms of Virginia and other colonies. 

The officials of English towns and cities saw in this a 
chance to get rid of their paupers and criminals. They 
were sold to the owners of vessels and to ship captains, 
who carried them to America. When they arrived they 
were put up at auction. The farmers gathered about 
the human cargo and bid for their services, generally 
paying the shipmaster in tobacco or some other product. 
For each new servant the farmer was entitled to fifty acres 
more land. 

It came about in this way that the population increased 
rapidly and the farms grew in size. Sometimes the 
"head right" was claimed whether a servant had been 
brought or not, and later the simple payment of a fee of 
a few shillings to the county clerk became sufficient to 
secure a tract of land. 

We see here one reason why many farms in Virginia 
came to be very large; these we are accustomed to call 
"plantations." Another reason was the profitableness 
of tobacco raising and the fact that the best crops could 
be raised on fresh soil. When the law Hmited the number 
of acres or plants, the farmer was bound to get as much 
as possible for his work; consequently, he cleared a new 
field every few years and abandoned the old. Land was 
plentiful, and it was generally level and easily cleared by 
the Indian method. The large number of broad-mouthed 
rivers that may be seen on the map of Virginia enabled 
the colonists to press inland for long distances in their 
search for more land. 

Their farms and plantations were laid out in this way: 



22 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



a certain distance was measured on the bank of a river, 
depending upon the size of the grant that a settler had; 
then straight lines one mile in length were run back at 
right angles to the river from the two ends of this bound- 
ary. When all the land along a river was taken, another 




Map of Eastern Virginia 

Showing location of scattered plantations. Adapted from 

map of Fry and Jefferson, 1751. 

tier of farms, bounded by straight lines, was laid out 
farther back in the country. 

The only way to mark the boundaries was by blazing 
the trees or by erecting httle piles of stones, and of course 
tl>ere were many disputes. Later, the law required that 
the farmers of each neighborhood should go in procession 
about the farms every year and trace the boundaries. 
If any marks had disappeared, these were renewed; if a 
dispute arose, it was settled by those present. The boys 
went along with their parents in this ''processioning," 
and thus the memory of farm boundaries was carried down 
from father to son. 



THE FIRST FARMERS OF VIRGINIA 23 

It is well known that the first negroes in Virginia were 
brought by a Dutch vessel in 16 19. These became inden- 
tured servants, not slaves, as is commonly supposed, and 
some of them, at least, acquired their freedom at the 
end of their terms of service. Not a great many negroes 
were brought to Virginia for the next half century, the 
number of indentured servants who came being several 
times as great. In 1649 there were but 300 negroes in 
the colony, some being free, some servants, and others 
slaves. After that time the majority who were brought 
became slaves. Some of the planters who got great tracts 
of land, thousands of acres in extent, had many servants 
and slaves. 



CHAPTER III 
THE BEGINNING OF AGRICULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND 

It was in December, 1620, that the Pilgrims built their 
first log houses at Plymouth. They faced a long, dreary 
winter before they could begin the work of farming that 
was to yield their main food supply. They were helped 
at this time by the stores of Indian corn that they had 
found buried. In the spring they used the fields near 
Plymouth that had been abandoned by the Indians, for 
a pestilence in this region had caused the natives to move 
away. 

An Indian by the name of Squanto showed the Pil- 
grims how to plant corn. ''Also, he told them," says 
Governor Bradford, ''except they gott fish and set with 
it (in these old grounds) it would come to nothing." 
They planted wheat and peas, but these did not do well. 
The first harvest of corn was a good one; but the second 
year (1622) they did not raise enough to supply the grow- 
ing colony for the winter. Governor Bradford gives 
several reasons for this: that they had not yet learned 
to raise corn; also, that they were engaged in many other 
employments (fishing, trapping, and lumbering); and 
finally, that much of the corn was stolen by the hungry 
settlers before it was ripe, "though many were well 
whipped for doing this." So they were obHged to buy a 
quantity of corn from the Indians. 

Another reason for the poor success of the Pilgrims at 
farming in these first years was that, as in Virginia, the 



EARLY AGRICULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND 



25 



colonists were not working for themselves separately. 
All their products were put into a common store. The 
Pilgrims adopted this plan because they were in debt 
to certain persons in England who had lent them money 
for the expense of their voyage to America. They hoped 
to make money in common for the payment of this 
debt. The result was that some shirked their work. 
So, in 1623, this system was abolished and each family 




Copyright, i8gi , by A. S. Burbank 

A View of Plymouth in 1622 



was granted a tract of land upon which to raise products 
for itself. This resulted in greater industry and even 
"the women now wente wiUingly into ye field, and tooke 
their Httle ones with them to set corne, which before 
would aledg weaknes and inabihtie." 

The stories of Jamestown and Plymouth show the 
importance of maize in the history of these settlements. 
It was better adapted to the American soil and climate 
than were the grains brought from England. It yielded 
twice as much food per acre as any other grain. The corn 



26 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

crop was less dependent upon changes of season, and its 
yield was more uniform. It could be harvested at any 
time within several weeks after its ripening, and the 
stalks and leaves furnished valuable fodder for stock. 
As the other colonies were founded, in one after another 
the value of this crop became known. Then, as people 
spread from the coast back into the interior, the first 
crop depended upon was corn. It was planted among 
the standing trees that had been killed by girdling. The 
seed was dropped where an ax or a hoe opened a slit 
in the rich forest mold; and here 
it yielded an abundant crop the 
first year. Fortunate, indeed, for 
the settlement of our country was 
this gift of maize which was made 
by nature and the American 
Indian. 

The Puritan settlers in the col- 
ony of Massachusetts Bay, who 
came about ten years after the 
settlement of the Pilgrims at 
A Beaver Plymouth, founded Salem, Boston, 

Beaver skins were the sta- ^nd Other towns near by. They 

pie in the fur trade. ... 

found the wmters cold and dis- 
agreeable as compared with the winters in England, 
but in the hot summers their crops grew abundantly, 
and after the first year they suffered no lack of food. 
Corn was their principal crop, and much of this they traded 
with the Indians for beaver skins. ''Besides," says 
one of their number, ''this country aboundeth naturally 
with store of Roots of great variety, and good to eat. 
Our Turnips, Parsnips, and Carrots are here both bigger 




EARLY AGRICULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND 27 

and sweeter than is ordinarily to be found in England. 
Here are also store of Pumpions, Cowcumbers, and other 
things of that nature." The cattle found tall, rich grass 
in open meadows, though the wolves were troublesome. 
The latter were caught with huge hooks baited with fat 
or tallow. 

As in Virginia, the settlers of New England soon spread 
backward into the country. In Virginia the people moved 
up the broad rivers, each intent upon getting as much 
land and raising as much tobacco as possible, and paying 
little attention to the affairs of his neighbors. In this way 
the population became scattered, and there came to be 
many large plantations. In New England the method of 
settlement was quite different, partly because the nature 
of the country was unlike that of Virginia, and partly 
because the Puritans carried out certain religious and 
political ideas that they brought with them to America. 

When the first towns had been established on the coast 
and it seemed desirable to some of the settlers that they 
should go farther in search of land, they did not move 
off as individuals, each looking out for himself, but 
rather in small companies, founding new towns. The 
Puritans generally came to America in groups, as fellow- 
villagers or members of the same congregation in England. 
It was natural that they should like to live together in 
the new country, and to keep up their little Puritan 
churches was one of their chief objects in coming. When 
new land became scarce near one of the original towns, a 
group or congregation would get a grant of land from the 
colonial assembly with permission to found a new town. 
From this town, again, other groups might separate in 
later years. Thus were formed the towns that grew into 



28 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



the Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies — children 
of the parent colony of Massachusetts Bay. And thus 
all eastern and southern New England came to be sprin- 
kled with towns, in which the people were chiefly farmers. 







T 

jM\A I N E 

Sdgadtihoc]^ 






'Sah... 
1629, 






A S S A C^^yH U S E T T S lAxington "■ '}:'^j^ynn~'''jTassac7LUSctts 

I s) ^\at^1tolln^ ^Boston 163U 

Roxhury '•Dofy-hester Bity 




New England in the Seventeenth Century 



These towns usually contained thirty-six square miles, 
though some were larger, and they were sometimes 
bounded by straight Unes; but their shapes were of great 
variety, not often rectangular. Rivers and other natural 
features were most often used as boundary lines. The 
band of men who founded the town were called the pro- 
prietors; they owned all the land. The first step after 
the boundaries of the town had been settled was to select 



EARLY AGRICULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND 



29 



the site for the houses — for the people, they thought, 
should live in a village and not on scattered farms. Upon 
the village site a "common" was laid out, and there, or 
near by, was the meetinghouse and perhaps a blockhouse 
for defense. Near the church, and running back from 
the sides of a wide street, were laid out narrow strips 
known as "home lots." These were, on the average, 
about six acres in extent, though they varied greatly in 
different towns and among the famihes of the same town. 
Upon the home 
lot each family 
had its house, 
barn, and other 
buildings, its 
garden patch, 
and a small field 
for inclosing and 
feeding the stock. 
New England 
has few level 
tracts of large 
extent. Consequently, each town contained within its 
Hmits several kinds of land — "upland," meadow, and 
marsh. Now, each proprietor had, besides the home lot, 
a strip of upland and another of meadow. There were 
usually two or more tracts of upland in a town, and as 
many of meadow, so each proprietor might find his prop- 
erty scattered in strips in several different localities. 
But he must live in the village, as the law obliged him to 
attend church regularly ; he went out each day to till his 
fields, returning at night. The amount of land owned 
by each proprietor depended upon several things — his 




Plan of an old New England Town 
Wethersfield, Conn. — Showing house lots. 



30 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

wealth, the size of his family, and his social and political 
importance as a man in the community. 

Very often a piece of tillable land was held by the pro- 
prietors ''in common"; that is, each built a part of the 
fence that surrounded the entire field, and it was decided 
at a meeting or by a committee what crops should be 
planted and when they should be planted and harvested. 
Though each proprietor had his own strip in this field, all 
joined in the work of plowing. But there was no common 
ownership of the crops. In such a common field, after 
the harvest was gathered, the herd of the town would be 
permitted to graze. 

Meadow lands were often held in common. Each 
farmer was allowed to gather hay and later to pasture 
there a certain number of cattle. The wooded lands that 
the proprietors did not at first divide were owned in 
common. The people of the town gathered their timber 
for their houses and fire-wood. It soon became necessary 
to pass laws against wasting the timber by burning it in 
order to clear the land. 

One may ask why the Puritans took these methods of 
laying out and cultivating their farms, that seem so pecul- 
iar to farmers of to-day. The answer is found in the fact 
that much of the cultivated land in England was managed 
upon this plan. The practice of farming in common had 
grown up in the course of centuries, but was destined to 
disappear again; and in New England the land system 
that has been described soon began to be modified. As 
the population increased in numbers by the addition of 
other settlers, the newcomers might be admitted as pro- 
prietors and given land like the rest; or, they might 
simply be ''residents." In the latter case they could 



EARLY AGRICULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND 31 

buy tracts for themselves and might also acquire strips 
in the common fields. As the villages grew, some of the 
original settlers became carpenters, cobblers, millers, and 
tradesmen, and were glad to dispose of their scattered 
strips. Gradually, Httle compact farms were founded, 
each with its farmhouse and tract of tillable land, 
meadow, and wood lot. Many of the farmers worked in 
winter as lumbermen or trappers, while on the coast they 
fished or followed some other occupation. 

In New England,. as in Virginia, it was difficult to keep 
live-stock, especially sheep, from being eaten by the 
wolves. Consequently, many animals were taken to the 
islands in Boston harbor, in Narrangansett Bay, and 
elsewhere along the coast. Often a peninsula was fenced 
ofi from the mainland, where the stock would be safe, as 

at Nahant. 

In the interior, much stock, especially cattle and hogs, 
ran wild in the woods. But everywhere the milch cows 
had to be carefully guarded. A town ofhcer known as 
the ''cowherd" drove the cows to the distant pasture or 
woodland in the morning and back again to the village at 
night, after watching them all day. He blew a horn soon 
after sunrise as a signal that the cows from each house-lot 
must be milked and ready to start. When he returned 
in the evening, with his slowly moving herd, the wife 
or daughter of each household along the shaded village 
street stood at the gate with milking-stool and pail. The 
cowherd sometimes kept the sheep of the village, but often 
there was a shepherd as well. In at least one town the 
herdsmen were assisted by the boys and girls, and the law 
provided that these must have some other occupation 
also, such as spinning, knitting, or weaving tape in 



32 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

order that they might not ''be suffered to converse to- 
gether." 

Since the sheep had to be carefully inclosed at night, 
the farmers of a village often united to make a portable 
fence, each furnishing a certain number of lengths, or 
''gates," as they were called. This fence was moved 
about from one field to another, so that each farmer in 
turn got the benefit of the sheep manure. 

In many towns there were officers called goatherds and 
swineherds, or hog-reeves. Other officers were the fence- 
viewers, who regulated the fencing of the common fields 
and inspected the fences that bounded the towns. The 
hay-wards were the guardians of the fences and the 
cattle. The pound-keeper took up stray animals and 
kept them in the village pound until they were redeemed 
by the owner upon the payment of a small fee. 

All of the officers mentioned were chosen in meetings 
of the proprietors or of all the voters; and the numerous 
regulations about the division of land and the manage- 
ment of the common fields and the stock were also 
decided in these meetings. The New England "town 
meeting" decided a great many petty details after free dis- 
cussion. This practice gave the people valuable lessons in 
government and also fixed the habit of self-government. 

Neither in New England nor elsewhere in the colonies 
in these early times was much care taken of the stock. 
The animals were not well fed (if fed at all) in the winter, 
and consequently in the spring those that had not per- 
ished were almost too weak to stand. It was the regular 
morning task of some farmers, in the early spring, to lift 
the poor cattle to their feet. 

This will not seem so strange if we remember that the 



EARLY AGRICULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND 33 

same general conditions prevailed in England. It was 
only during our later colonial period that the use of tame 
grasses and the feeding of turnips to cattle in the winter 
were becoming common in that country. 

In the early years of the New England colonies, while 
there were many thriving fishing villages and commercial 
towns along the coast, by far the greater part of the people 
were farmers. As they opened up this new region they 
built log houses, often thatched with reeds, with oiled 
paper windows and heavy doors and shutters. The 
great chimney and its hearth were the chief features of 
the Hving room. The furniture was homemade and 
massive. Here in the home were carried on many other 
occupations besides farming: spinning, weaving, tailor- 
ing, shoe-making, carpentering, and dairying. In short, 
each household raised and made whatever was necessary 
for its own Hving, except such products as tea, coffee, 
sugar, and spices. This continued to be the nature of 
farm hfe in New England, and agriculture continued to 
be its leading occupation, until after the great changes 
that came about at the time of the War of 181 2. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE MIDDLE COLONIES AND THE CAROLINAS 

The first farmers of New Netherland were servants of 
the Dutch West India Company. This company, founded 
in Holland for the purpose of carrying on trade, estabhshed 
a trading post on Manhattan Island. In 1626 the island 



*e!k^ 




fc 



A BouwERiE ON Manhattan Island 

was purchased from the Indians. Then some farmers 
and negro slaves were taken there by the Company and 
were set to work clearing land near the fort at the south- 
ern end of the island. The land was divided into six 
"bouweries," or farms. These were rented to tenants, 
the Company building the houses and barns and furnish- 
ing the Hve-stock. The Company had its own farm, be- 



MIDDLE COLONIES AND THE CAROLINAS 



35 



sides, worked by servants and slaves, and it granted land 
to some individual farmers. 

But people were slow in coming from comfortable old 
Holland to the hard hfe of the New World, even to such a 
beautiful and fruitful region as that 
of the Hudson Valley. Partly for 
this reason the West India Com- 
pany made a great plan by which, 
it was thought, settlers would be in- 
duced to come. According to this 
plan, a person who brought to the 
colony fifty adults within four years 
was to be given a tract of land with 
a frontage of sixteen miles on the 
Hudson (or eight miles on each side), 
and as far back into the country as 
desired. The ^'patroon," as he was 
called, was obliged to divide his 
estate into farms, erect buildings, 
and furnish stock and tools for each 
tenant. The latter would then pay a certain rent, gen- 
erally in the form of produce, and the patroon would also 
get a part of the increase of the stock. The tenant was 
not allowed to sell the rest of his crops until the patroon 
had been given a chance to buy the produce. He agreed 
to have his grain ground at the patroon's mill and to get 
a license to hunt and fish. Furthermore, the tenant 
bound himself not to leave the estate for ten years, during 
which time he was free of taxes. The patroon was an 
official, as well as a landlord, and before him cases were 
brought as to a court. 

This plan was destined not to succeed. Only one 




Dutch Patroon or 
Landed Proprietor 



36 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

estate, that of the Van Rensselaers, was important in 
later years. What farmer wanted to be bound by all 
these conditions, in a new country where land could be 
had for the asking, or could be taken without asking? 
The Company later made new plans under which men 
could easily acquire the ownership of farms. More Dutch 



f ^ 




't\ 



-^jii, _ 



^'^!>iA.^ t^k 



'1 ->!> 






Ancient Van Rensselaer Mansion 
At Greenbush, near Albany, N. Y. 

now came, but even larger numbers of settlers from Eng- 
land and New England found good locations on the banks 
of the Hudson and on the shores of Long Island. Here 
they founded Httle towns and managed their farms and 
common lands much as was done in New England. Later, 
after the Enghsh conquered New Netherland (1664) and 
made it New York, more large estates were founded on 
the Hudson. Some, such as those owned by the Schuyler 
and Livingston famihes, were called ''manors." On these 
estates some slaves were found and some indentured serv- 
ants; but most of the laborers were tenants, who brought 
their rents to the manor house twice a year and were 
then given a great celebration and barbecue. 



MIDDLE COLONIES AND THE CAROLINAS 37 

As the settlers cleared the land and made their farms 
farther up the Hudson and then spread westward, along 
the valley of the Mohawk, they found the soil to be ex- 
ceedingly rich. One observer, writing in 1655, said that 
wheat was raised for eleven years in succession on the 
same field, and that for nine years he had not seen manure 
used on any farms. Wheat and barley grew so rank on 
fresh land, sometimes six or seven feet high, that there 
was Httle grain in the heads. The leaves of tobacco 
plants were three-fourths of a yard long. The farms of 
New York soon became noted for the production of fruit 
and vegetables. On Long Island great herds of cattle 
roamed. Many persons kept goats instead of sheep, be- 
cause of the milk they gave, and because they were 
better able to defend themselves against the wolves. 

When WilHam Penn founded his colony, he made it 
easy for settlers to acquire land. He sold one hundred 
acres for £2 and the payment of an annual "quit-rent" 
of one shilling for each such tract. A person who was 
too poor to buy land might rent a farm at the yearly 
rate of one shilling per acre. Many thousands of poor 
people came to Pennsylvania as indentured servants. 
The cost of their passage could be paid for by a few years' 
service. Very often a servant was able to earn enough 
by extra work during this time to buy a farm, or he might 
work a while after his discharge, as a laborer on wages. 
Some poor famihes had their children indentured during 
the years when they were getting a start. Often the 
newly freed servant would go into the wilderness, build 
a little hut, and depend largely upon hunting until he 
could buy implements and stock. 

Penn had travelled in Germany and had seen how 



38 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

wretched many of the people were. The poor peasants 
were unable to acquire farms of their own, and their 
landlords made heavy exactions. In the frequent wars 
of that time their crops and homes were destroyed and 
their sons were forced into military service. He had 
circulars telling about the beauty and richness of Penn- 
sylvania printed and 
Redemptioners. sent there. This re- 

THERE AjII remain on board tKefliipAuTwa i^ j • ^i. 

from AtnAcrdam, about xg paffcngers; amongft ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ COmmg 

whom are, of large numbers of 

Servant girls, gardeners, butchers, inafons, ^ 
fug^ bakers, bread bakers, 1 fhoeraaker, x filwei- Germans tO hlS 

coofe, and foma a. lirde acquainted with waiting colony , where they 

on families, as well as fanning and tendicg horfes, became thrifty 
&c. They are all in. good KeaJih. Any perfoo 

defirous of beiog accommodated in the above farmers. 
branch es will pieafe fpeedily to apply to Evervwhere there 

Captairt JOHN BOWLES, i^very wnere mere 

jn tKe Oream, off FeU'sPoint: were forests, but 

IVhoofferjftn Sale, ,, . i i 

80 Iton-boundwier Calks these were quickly 

1 c}\eft elegant Fo-wling fteces, finsU and doti- cleared bv the 
IJa barrelled ^ ,. , , ^, 

1^,000 Dutch Brick. and Indian method. The 

Sundry feip. ProviQons. g^jl ^^g ^ ^.j j^ 1^^ ^ 

July 14. ap,ea^ 

„ c> loam, easily plowed, 

Advertisement of Servants for Sale ' ^ -^ / ^ ' 

and yielding im- 
mense crops. It was soon found that wheat grew well 
in Pennsylvania, and this became its chief crop. There 
was also much hemp and flax raised. 

In the settlement of Maryland, much the same con- 
ditions were met as in Virginia. The broad rivers and 
the arms of Chesapeake Bay made it easy for farms to 
spread to the interior. The soil was exceedingly rich; 
the gentle slopes were covered with fine open forests. 
The settlers had learned from the experience of the Vir- 
ginians how to avoid the troubles of the first years in 



MIDDLE COLONIES AND THE CAROLINAS 39 

the new colony. They brought food and seed, as well 
as goods with which to buy corn from the Indians. There 
were some large estates, or manors, in Maryland, upon 
which tenants and indentured servants worked. But 
small landowners each got one hundred acres and as much 
more for each member of the family who came to Mary- 
land — -all for a small annual payment, or '^ quit-rent." 
The grains were grown, but tobacco became Maryland's 
chief crop. Here, as in Virginia, it was used for money. 

The experience of Raleigh's colony on the coast of 
North Carolina showed that it was not easy to begin 
farming in that locality. The soil was sandy and swamps 
abounded. The first farmers came to this colony from 
Virginia. Some were poor men in search of land to be 
had for nothing. Others had been indentured servants. 
Still others were lawbreakers, or were in debt, and had 
run away for fear of punishment. Small farms were the 
rule in North Carolina. They were located on the rivers 
and produced chiefly tobacco and corn. Many Germans, 
Swiss, French Huguenots, and Scotch-Irish came to this 
colony. The last mentioned came from the north of 
Ireland and were a thrifty class of people. More will 
be said about them later. 

South Carolina had quite a different agricultural his- 
tory in colonial times from that of her sister colony on 
the north. Many efforts were made to raise semi-tropical 
products in South Carolina, but none was very successful 
until rice was planted. The introduction of rice is said 
to have come about in this way. Thomas Smith, Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina, had previously hved in the island 
of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, where rice 
grows abundantly. In the year 1693 ^ vessel from Mada- 



40 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



gascar happened to be in the harbor of Charleston, and 
the captain inquired for Governor Smith. In the course 
of their visit, the Governor asked if the captain could 
furnish some rice for seed. The cook of the vessel found 
a small bag of it in his kitchen. Governor Smith planted 
this in his garden and it prospered so well that others 
soon began its cultivation. At first rice was grown 




^MShj&^^m 






Rice Field 



upon dry soil, but swamp land was found to be better, 
so the wet lands along the rivers came to be the best 
fields. Slaves were set to clearing this land of brush 
and weeds. By a system of dikes and ditches, water 
could be let in and drawn off the fields. After the rice 
began to grow, the field was flooded as a means of keeping 
down the grass and weeds. The plant grew so abundantly 
that the cost of a slave could sometimes be paid for by 
one year's harvest. Soon rice became the greatest single 
product of South Carolina. 

The white laborers found work in the rice fields during 
the hot summers to be intolerable, and, as a result, more 



MIDDLE COLONIES AND THE CAROLINAS 41 

negro slaves were brought in by those who could afford 
to do it. As the poorer farmers could not raise rice and 
sell it so cheaply as those who had large fields worked by 
slaves, they sold their farms and moved into the interior. 
Thus it came about that there were eventually many large 
plantations along the rivers of South Carolina. The 
planters and their families found it pleasant to live for a 
part of the year in Charleston, though they had beautiful 
homes on their plantations. The slaves were left in 
charge of overseers, who sometimes treated them badly. 
The heat, the work, and disease killed off the negroes 
rapidly. 

There was much work connected with rice culture 
after the grain was ripe and had been cut. First, it was 
threshed with a flail; then by means of a pitchfork the 
straw was removed from the threshing floor. The kernels 
of grain still bore the husks and these were broken off by 
being pounded in a mortar, which might be the hollowed- 
out end of a stump. After this the grain was winnowed. 
This was done by hand and was very hard work. The 
invention of a fanning mill made the process much easier. 
The. mill was driven by horse-power, by the tide, or by 
the wind. The rice was finally packed in barrels, for the 
manufacture of which every plantation had its cooper- 
shop. Before the Revolution, South Carolina exported 
125,000 barrels of rice yearly. 

The South Carolina crop that came to be, during colo- 
nial times, next to rice in value was one that is no longer 
a product of this country, namely, indigo. This plant 
is now of much less importance than it was in those days, 
because we have other materials, made from coal tar, 
that are used for dyeing cloth blue. But at that time the 



42 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



indigo plant was the best source for the blue dye, and its 
product was very valuable. Most of the indigo used 
in European countries came from the East Indies; but 
it was also produced in the West Indies. 

Strange to say, the colony of South CaroHna is indebted 
for the beginning of its indigo culture to the work of a 
young girl. This was Eliza Lucas, who was destined 

to become the mother of 
Colonel Charles Cotes- 
worth Pinckney, a brave 
Revolutionary soldier and 
afterward a member of 
the convention that 
framed our Constitution. 
Later, he was a prominent 
Federalist statesman and 
was minister to France at 
the time of the X. Y. Z. 
troubles. Eliza Lucas 
was the daughter of an 
Enghsh army officer who 
was stationed in the island 
of Antigua in the West 
Indies. Colonel Lucas 
moved his family from 
Antigua to South Carolina for the benefit of his wife, 
whose health was dehcate. He had resided there but a 
year or two when he was recalled to Antigua, as war had 
broken out between Spain and England. This was in 
1739, when Eliza was but sixteen years of age. The 
management of their plantation now fell largely upon 
this young girl. Fortunately she had a liking for experi- 




ViciNiTY OF Charleston, S. C. 

Showing plantations and roads. After 
Stuart's map, 1780. 



MIDDLE COLONIES AND THE CAROLINAS 43 

ments in agriculture, and excused her various schemes by 
writing, ''I own I love the vegetable world extreamly." 

The Lucas estate was located on Wappoo Creek, a 
few miles south of Charleston. Eliza's description of 
the surrounding country, as she wrote it to her brother, 
who was being educated in England, is interesting. ''I 
now set down my Dear Brother to obey your commands 
and give you a short description of the part of the world 
I now inhabit. So. Carolina, then, is a large and Exten- 
sive Country near the Sea. Most of the settled parts 
of it is upon a flat — the soil near Charles Town Sandy, 
but farther distant clay and swamp land. It abounds 
with fine navigable rivers, and great quantities of fine 
timber. . . . The soil in general very fertile, and there 
is very few Europeans or American fruits or grain but 
what grow here. The Country abounds with wild fowl, 
Venison and fish. Beef, veal and mutton, are here in much 
greater perfection than in the Islands, tho' not equal to 
that in England — but their pork exceeds any I ever 
tasted anywhere. The turkeys extreamly fine, especially 
the wild, and indeed all their poultry is exceedingly good, 
and peaches, Nectarines and mellons of all sorts extreamly 
fine and in profusion, and their Oranges exceed any I 
ever tasted in the West Indies or from Spain or Portugal. 
. . . We have a most charming spring in this country, 
especially for those who travel through the country, for 
the scent of the young mistle and the yellow Jesamin 
with wch the woods abound, is delightful. The staple 
commodity here is rice, and the only thing they export 
to Europe — beef, pork, and lumber they send to the 
West Indies." ^ 

^ This and other quotations are from H. H. Ravenel's Eliza Pinckney. 



44 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

What were the products of this fine CaroHna estate 
under the management of Miss Lucas? In her letters 
to her father we find mention of, "Indigo, Ginger, cotton, 
lucerne, and cassada;" also, pitch, tar, and lime. She 
sent to her father in Antigua at one time white oak staves, 
bacon, and salted beef; at another ''2 barls Rice, do 
corn, 3 do pease, and pickled pork, 2 kegs Oysters, one, 
of eggs by way of experiment putt up in salt." 

The first three or four years of experimenting with 
indigo were disappointing. Frost and cut-worms pre- 
vented its growth. In 1742, Eliza wrote to her father, 
''I make no doubt Indigo will prove a very valueable 
commodity in time, if we could have 
the seed from the East Indies time 
enough to plant the latter end of 
March. ' ' A few years later, through 
her persistence, the success of the 
crop was assured, and seed was dis- 
tributed from the Lucas estate to 
the planters of the surrounding 
country. Before the Revolution 
Indigo Plant broke out, South CaroHna was ex- 

porting over a miUion pounds of 
indigo annually, valued at more than £50,000. 

The indigo plant is a shrub that grows three or four 
feet high, with bluish-green leaves. The leaves, or some- 
times the entire plant, were put to soak for a number of 
hours in a vat full of water. This process removed the 
coloring matter. The water was then drawn off into 
another vat standing near and below the first one. Here 
the water was beaten with paddles until the coloring 
matter became thick. Again it was drawn off into a 




MIDDLE COLONIES AND THE CAROLINAS 45 

third vat and here allowed to settle. The thickened 
sediment was then taken out in cakes and put to dry in 
sheds. The whole process required much skill and was 
a very disagreeable one on account of the bad odor and 
the swarms of flies that gathered about. Mr. Lucas 
sent a man from the West Indies to make indigo on his 
plantation. He seems to have purposely spoiled the 
material in the process; but Eliza discovered what he 
was doing and dismissed him. 

The EngHsh government, wishing to encourage this 
crop, paid a bounty of sixpence a pound to persons in 
England who imported it from the colonies. This 
enabled the English merchants to pay a better price 
for it. After the Revolution, of course, this bounty 
was no longer paid, and the English imported more from 
the East Indies. Indigo culture in South CaroHna then 
dechned; fortunately, just at this time cotton production 
came in to take its place. 

Later in Hfe, Eliza Lucas, now Mrs. Pinckney, experi- 
mented with silk raising. She had little negroes pick 
mulberry leaves upon which to feed the worms, and the 
old women assisted in winding the raw silk. Mrs. Pinck- 
ney carried on this work so carefully that she produced 
enough raw silk for the making of three dresses. When 
she went to England in 1753, she had this silk woven 
into cloth and gave one of the dresses to the mother 
of George III, who was then Prince of Wales. 

In spite of the efforts made by Mrs. Pinckney and many 
other persons, silk culture never grew to be of any im- 
portance in the CaroHnas, or elsewhere in this country. 
This is because there were more profitable crops. The 
West Indies furnished a good market for grains and 



46 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

meats; rice and indigo commanded good prices in Europe; 
and for the production of these commodities there existed 
in the Carolinas not only excellent soil and climate, but 
the right labor conditions as well. 




Colonial Wooden 

MOLDBOARD PlOW 



CHAPTER V 

SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 

The preceding chapters have told the story of the first 
efforts at farming made by the early colonists. In the 
course of the century or more that passed before the 
Revolution, the people of the Atlantic coast region 
settled down into fixed agricultural habits and customs. 
These were not greatly changed during the period of 
important pohtical events that followed. The Revolu- 
tion, the adoption of the Constitution, and the starting 
of the new government under President Washington do 
not constitute events in our agricultural history, as they 
do in our political life. It is now proper to ask, what 
were the ways of farming that these people adopted so 
naturally and that they still kept with shght changes 
until the nineteenth century had well begun? 

Let us first inquire, was colonial agriculture merely 
English agriculture carried across the ocean? By no 
means! One important difference may be found in the 
matter of land ownership. While in England many 
cultivators of the soil owned their own farms, and while 
there was a great deal of ownership in common by the 
people of a village, there were yet greater numbers of 
people who were tenants under more or less hard condi- 
tions on the estates of the large landowners. The possi- 
bility of acquiring independent ownership of a farm was 
much less in England than in America. Here, every 
industrious worker (except the slave) could become a 



48 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

landowner if he would. Besides all the easy ways that 
the laws provided by which land might be acquired in 
the colonies, there was everywhere another way — the 
man with courage and strong arms could go beyond the 
limits of settlement, and with ax and gun make the be- 
ginnings of a home without asking permission of anyone. 
To be sure, he might later be asked to pay for the land he 
had taken, or else be driven off. In England there was 
no such "free" land. This difference between the Old 
World and the New (for the same general conditions 
existed at this time on the Continent as in England) is 
one of the most important facts of American agricultural 
history. It had great influence in rnany ways, as will be 
shown in later chapters. 

In the next place, it may be asked, did the American 
colonists follow English methods of cultivation on their 
farms? Now, the century when the colonies were grow- 
ing, from 1650 to 1750, saw in England the beginning of 
great improvements in agriculture. Before that time 
there was scarcely any scientific knowledge of soils and 
crops. The people knew, of course, that they could not 
keep on cropping a field without destroying its fertihty. 
But the only. way they had of keeping the soil in good 
condition was to let it lie idle for a year. They did not 
have enough stock to provide the manure necessary for 
fertihzation. So the farms were divided into fields, 
usually three in number, each one of which, in rotation, 
was left fallow for a year. On one of the remaining two 
there would be planted a fall crop, and on the other a 
spring crop. The vacant field was plowed, and after a 
year's rest was found to be in better condition. This 
was called "bare fallowing." 



GENERAL FEATURES OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 49 

About this time it was learned that the field left fallow 
might as well be planted to clover, or some similar crop; 
this would restore some elements of its fertility, though 
the reason for this fact was not known. It was also found 
that crops of turnips and other roots and vegetables 
might profitably be rotated with the grains, and that the 
roots might be fed to stock. Using these crops for the 
winter feeding of cattle resulted in more manure, which 
was valuable in keeping up the fertility of the entire 
farm. 

English landlords and farmers we're very slow in adopt- 
ing these new ideas; but they put them into practice 
gradually. Just before the American Revolution it was 
fashionable in England for gentlemen of means to devote 
m.uch time to the management of their estates, trying 
experiments, studying the latest methods, and vying 
with each other in producing the largest crops and the 
finest stock. 

One such enthusiastic landlord was Lord Townshend, 
father of that Lord Townshend who was the author of 
the hated taxation acts of 1767, placing duties upon tea, 
glass, and painters' colors imported into the colonies. 
Lord Townshend made so much of the new ideas that he 
was called "Turnip Townshend." He rotated his crops 
and thus avoided the wasteful practice of bare fallowing. 
At the same time the work of Jethro Tull was having 
great influence in England. He invented a drill and 
also a ''horse-hoe," or cultivator. He wrote much upon 
the advantages of seeding by a drill, instead of broad- 
cast, and upon the value of deep plowing and the thorough 
cultivation of the soil. 

Undoubtedly many of the farmers who came to America 



50 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

knew about the new agricultural methods then coming 
into favor in England. But they did not set themselves 
at once to put them into practice. Here they found a 
virgin soil, rich almost beyond belief, instead of one 
worn by centuries of cultivation. They even found some 
that was too rich for wheat — it must first be reduced 
by crops of corn or tobacco. But everywhere the soil 
became worn, sooner or later, and the farmers would 
have been driven to the old Enghsh methods of fallowing, 
or the new methods of clover and turnip crops, had there 
not been an easier way out of the difficulty. This was 
to take new fields of fresh land; and this is what they 
did throughout the colonies, so long as the supply of land 
lasted. 

With the crude implements of the time, only a small 
number of acres could be cultivated by one man. There- 
fore, when he acquired one hundred, or several hundred, 
acres, as he might easily do, the farmer had room in 
which to open up fresh fields for many years, leaving the 
worn-out ones to grow up to grass, weeds, and brush. 
Besides, there was always the frontier, with its tall 
forests standing guard over the rich mold of centuries. 
On these new lands larger crops could be raised than the 
old land would yield with the most careful kind of culti- 
vation known to the colonists. 

Thus it was that while English farmers were learning 
new methods of intensive agriculture, the Americans were 
everywhere practicing extensive agriculture, because it 
was easier and cheaper. The land was plowed care- 
lessly; the crops were not half cultivated; fences, where 
any existed at all, were neglected; and the edges and 
corners of fields were overgrown with weeds. American 



GENERAL FEATURES OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 51 

farms had a ragged, neglected appearance, and the 
buildings were few and poor. So noticeable were these 
facts that they were often remarked upon by European 
visitors to the colonies. 

In one account of colonial agriculture written at that 
time it is stated that the farmers ''seem to have but one 
object, which is plowing up fresh land. The csis6 is, 
they exhaust the old as fast as possible till it will bear 
nothing more, and then, not having manure to replenish 
it, nothing remains but to take up new land to serve 
in the same manner. . . One would imagine that the 
error of such conduct would soon be discovered and 
rectified of itself; but the American planters and farmers 
are in general the greatest slovens in Christendom; plenty 
of land ruins their husbandry in every respect of general 
conduct — neatness, good management, spirited attempts, 
etc." So shiftless were their methods that it was not at 
all unusual for the farmer to move his barn away from 
the manure pile, when the latter became too large. 

Such are the most general facts concerning colonial 
agriculture. Of course, there were many exceptions. 
We have seen how, in Puritan towns, sheep and cattle 
were used to fertilize the fields. As time went on, many 
farmers in all the colonies were driven to more careful 
cultivation of their fields. This was especially true in 
New England. Here Jared Eliot, who had travelled in 
Europe, taught and wrote about the necessity of clover 
crops and other improved methods. He "brought from 
England a ''horse-hoe" and urged farmers to plow deeper 
than was the custom. 

Everywhere in the earliest times, and always on the 
frontier, the live-stock ran wild in the woods. The 




52 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

animals were generally branded. Often the farmer called 
his cattle and pigs to the barnyard at night, where they 
were given a little feed; and they usually stayed near 
during the winter. But they were given httle or no 
shelter. It was a belief of some in early Virginia that 
it would kill a cow to keep her housed and to milk 

her during the winter. As a 
result of their poor treatment, 
horses and cattle became smaller, 
and more lean and ragged, 
through succeeding generations. 
Swine became thin and scrawny. 
The Southern Pine ^j^^ average fleece of a sheep 

Woods Hog .1,1 ^ 

weighed only two or three 

pounds, and a horse that was thirteen or fourteen hands 
high was considered of good size. 

Agricultural implements were few and very crude. 
Oxen were generally used for plowing. They were 
stronger and steadier than horses and were less injured 
by the exposure and hard work of the colonial farm. 
There were no iron plows in the colonies. The frame and 
moldboard were of wood; on the latter were nailed pieces 
of scrap iron, old horseshoes, or any bit of metal that 
came handy. The point and share were, indeed, of iron, 
and cost as much as the rest of the plow. Some farmers 
used a one-handed plow, which was guided by one hand, 
while in the other was held a stick with which the dirt 
was constantly scraped from the moldboard. One can 
readily understand that under the circumstances deep 
plowing was impossible. Some farmers comforted them- 
selves with the beHef that deep plowing ruined the soil 
anyhow ! 



GENERAL FEATURES OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 



53 



Sickles and scythes cut all the colonial grain. The 
short, heavy English scythe was improved by Joseph 
Jenckes of Lynn, Massachusetts, who made the blade 




Farming Tools of Later Colonial Times 

longer and thinner, and strengthened it by welding a 
bar of iron on the back. The plow, the wagon or sled, 
and' a rude harrow, generally with wooden teeth, were 
the only farm implements drawn by horses or oxen; all 
other work was done by hand. 

It has been stated that the presence of so much rich 
land, almost free to everybody, made colonial agriculture 
different from that of the Old World with respect to 
ownership and methods of cultivation. There were 
other great differences. Here there was more land than 
the people could use, while in Europe there were more 
people than the land (as it was then cultivated) could 
sustain. Consequently, while farm laborers were plenti- 
ful abroad, they were scarce and often could not be 
hired at any price in America. Why should a farm 
laborer continue to work for hire when he could earn 
enough in a few years to buy himself a farm? Even the 



54 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

indentured servants, of whom there were many thousands, 
worked to the end of their terms within a few years and 
soon became owners of farms. Many of these servants 
were harshly treated and ran away from their masters. 
If caught, they were flogged, and their terms of service 
might be lengthened. The majority, however, acquired 
land, often on the frontier, and became respectable 
farmers. 

In the earlier part of the seventeenth century most of 
the immigrants from Europe settled in New England and 
in the other northern colonies. After the middle of that 
century a change came about. When the Puritans under 
Cromwell defeated the forces of the RoyaUsts under 
Charles I, and then cut off his head and estabhshed the 
Commonwealth (164Q-1660), many of his followers came 
to Virginia and took large tracts of land for tobacco 
raising. Here and in South Carolina there was great 
demand for labor, since the only limit to the wealth a 
man might obtain was the amount of soil that he could 
bring under cultivation. Consequently, we find many 
negro slaves brought into these colonies. 

The New England shipowners and merchants took 
part in the business of bringing negroes from Africa to 
America; for at this time they were finding a good market 
in the West Indies for their cod and other fish, and for 
barrel staves and salt meats. Here they obtained 
cargoes of sugar and molasses that were taken to New 
England and, in part, distilled into rum. The rum 
formed a part of the cargoes of vessels sailing to the west 
coast of Africa. Negroes were bought, or forced on 
shipboard, and thus the supply of laborers for the south- 
ern colonies was kept up. How different were all these 



GENERAL FEATURES OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 55 

conditions from those existing at that time in the mother 
country ! 

Another result of the new conditions that Englishmen 
found in America was the fact that the average man 
made a much better living here; and there were no 
paupers. In European countries the care of paupers 
was a great burden, and the suffering of the poor was 
pitiful. Here, the demand for laborers, the high wages, 
the ease with which land could be obtained, and the 
bountiful crops — all made poverty a rare condition. 
Indeed, the woods and waters might furnish much of a 
farmer's living: game and fish were so abundant that in 
the southern colonies, it is said, a man could in half a day 
obtain food that would last two families for a week. 

In the colonies, since there were few large cities, and 
since agriculture was everywhere the principal occupa- 
tion, the largest class of people were the owners of 
small farms; and these, while hard-working, lived lives 
of comfort and enjoyment unknown to most European 
farmers. In fact, there was no such middle class of 
well-to-do farmers in any European country at that 
time. 

By the end of the colonial period, the farmers of America 
had accompHshed several great things: (i) They had 
learned all the lessons in agriculture that the Indian had 
to teach. These lessons were very valuable, especially 
in the easy clearing of land and the use of Indian corn. 
This crop not only saved their fives in the beginning, but 
also became the most important source of food in the 
colonies. (2) The colonists had done a great deal of 
experimenting with afi sorts of crops, especially those of 
semi-tropical countries, and had learned which were and 



56 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

which were not adapted to their soil, cHmate, and labor 
conditions. So well did they do this, in fact, that for 
more than one hundred years after the colonial period 
no new crop of importance was added except one, 
sorghum. (3) While the system they had adopted was, 
for them, the most profitable method of farming, it was 
so wasteful of forests and soil that it has been called 
''land butchery." This plan answered their purposes 
for the time being, but it robbed later generations of great 
wealth. 

By the methods that have been described, faulty though 
they were in certain ways, the colonial farmers came to 
be, on the whole, the most independent, contented, and 
well-fed class of working people in the world. 



CHAPTER VI 
COLONIAL AGRICULTURE, NORTH AND SOUTH 

If one had travelled from Maine to Georgia, in colonial 
times, he would have seen a great difference between the 
farms of New England and the large plantations of the 
South. Its physical features helped in making New 
England a country of small farms. Besides, the climate 
was such that it did not pay to have slaves; for ignorant 
negroes from Africa could not easily learn the various 
occupations that kept the farmer and his family busy 
during the long winters. Then, too, the good harbors 
of the coast and the fish of the North Atlantic attracted 
many persons to commerce, shipbuilding, and fishing. 
The people who followed these occupations lived in 
towns that furnished good markets for the farmers' 
produce. This fact, in turn, made land more costly, so 
that one person could not afford to buy a great estate, 
even if the crop and supply of laborers had been such 
that he could have cultivated it. Although at first 
land was given away in New England, it came to be 
worth many times as much per acre as that in Virginia. 

The farms of New England yielded a variety of crops. 
One Puritan said that his farm furnished everything the 
family needed the year around, except some ten dollars' 
worth of such necessities as iron and salt. There were 
wool and flax for clothing, corn, wheat, and rye for bread, 
and pumpkins for ''sauce" and pies; the gardens contained 



58 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 




all kinds of vegetables, though potatoes were not much 
used in early colonial times. Some thought that a man 
who ate them regularly for seven years would surely die! 
Tomatoes were either unknown or used 
merely as a garden decoration. They 
were called '' love-apples," and were 
thought to be poisonous. Every farm 
had its live-stock, from which came a 
bountiful supply of milk, beef, pork, mut- 
ton, ham, and bacon. The latter were 
smoked in the broad chimney or in a 
*' smokehouse." Much beef was salted, 
since those were the days before ice was 
stored. Quantities of salt meats, besides live-stock, were 
shipped to the West Indies, where the planters kept their 
slaves employed raising their most profitable crop — sugar 
— -and preferred to buy their food supply. 

When flax was grown on the New England farm there 
were many different pro- 
cesses to be carried on, in 
some of which the children 
could assist their parents. 
By them the field was 
weeded when the plants 
were young. When the flax 
was cut the seeds were re- 
moved and the stalks were 
tied into bundles and 
stacked. Later, they were 
laid in a ditch and covered 
with water, so that the bark 
and worthless parts of the stem rotted and could be re- 




Flax Brake 



COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 



59 




Flax Hetchel 



moved from the good strong fiber. In doing this the flax 
brake was first used. Afterward, the bunches of broken 
stalks must be hackeled, or hetcheled, several times. 
The hetchel was a board through which sharp spikes were 
driven; the flax was first thrown upon the points and 
then drawn through the spikes until 
the fibers were straight and clear of 
refuse. The Scotch-Irish of New 
Hampshire made much linen from 
their flax; but larger crops of flax 
were raised in the middle and south- 
ern colonies than in New England. 

Hemp was another farm product 
more abundant in New York and 
Pennsylvania than in New England. 
Its fibers were cleaned and separated in much the same 
way as those of flax. 

The New England farm boy of colonial times was not 
allowed to tempt Satan by any show of idle hands. He 
could not hold one of his father's clumsy plows, but he 
might ride on the beam and thus help to keep it in the 
furrow. There were always the garden to be. weeded and 
the stock to be fed. He drove and herded the cattle and 
sheep, worked at the wood-pile, and helped his father 
build rail fences. More enjoyable, though it some- 
times became tedious, was the work of guarding the corn- 
fields against the pestering squirrels and crows. The 
foxes that dug the fish out of the corn hills and the 
wolves that attacked the sheep had to be trapped. 

Probably the greatest fun came in the spring, when 
the sap ran, and the maple sugar camp was the scene of 
much busy employment. This was the Puritan boy's 



6o 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



sole "camping out" experience. Maple sugar saved 
much expense in the buying of West India cane sugar, as 
also did wild honey from the great hollow trees that the 
boys learned to find by following the flight of bees. 




A Maple Sugar Camp 

Another springtime occupation was the making of 
soap. The barrels of wood ashes were leached by having 
water soaked through them. At the bottom of each 
barrel was a hole through which the lye dripped. Mixed 
with grease and fat, this was ''boiled down" in a huge 
kettle over a fire built out-of-doors. The product was 
good homemade soap, both hard and soft, for different 
household uses. 

In the fall the cider mill was set going; at the same 
time barrels of apple sauce and apple butter were made 
for winter use. The pigs were killed and the sausages 
were stuffed. 

Everyone has seen pictures of the old New England 
farmhouse, with its rambling wings, sloping roofs, and 
many gables. In the center was the huge chimney; the 
fireplace occupied much of one side of the living room. 



COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 



6i 



Here the cooking was done and here the family gathered 
in daily worship. Around the fireplace, too, were car- 
ried on the many occupations that helped to feed and 
clothe the family. There was enough of such work to 




New England Kitchen 

keep all hands busy during the long winter evenings. 
The greater part of the clothing of both men and women 
was made of wool. This was first cleaned, then combed, 
and then spun into yarn. The girls could help in the 
spinning and the boys could wind the yarn. Cloth was 
then woven in the loom and was later fulled and dyed. 
The garments for the family were cut and made in the 
home. 

Other fireside occupations for the boys were shelling 
corn, the making of brooms and wooden shoe pegs, and 
the setting of wire teeth in wool co-mbs and of spikes in 
the flax hetchels. The men, on their part, cut out wooden 
bowls, spoons, and other dishes and utensils for use in the 
kitchen and on the table; they plaited baskets and chair 
seats, and mended scythes, rakes, flails, and other tools. 
They made the wooden handles of these implements 



62 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

and the wooden teeth of rakes and harrows, hardening 
the latter in the fire. They also fashioned the ox-yokes 
that were used on every farm. Iron nails and chains were 
made at home forges. The New England farmers also 
made shingles, staves, and clapboards, both for their 
own use and for sale. Large quantities of these products 
were exported. In short, the small farm of colonial 
times was also a factory. Its many occupations gave 
to the young a training of the hands that went far to 
educate their minds and to make them in every respect 
strong men and women. 

In many ways, quite different conditions of rural life 
were found in Virginia. The country was level, and the 
soil, though sandy in some places, was on the whole rich. 
The mountains were far from the coast, and the rivers 
afforded an easy way into the interior. Under these 
conditions the people spread out upon large plantations, 
instead of having only small farms such as were found 
in New England. But the greatest cause for the existence 
of the large plantation system was tobacco. This prod- 
uct was thought to be more sure to make a man rich 
than any other source of wealth in the colonies. A de- 
scription of plantation methods will show why many of 
the planters did not become rich in anything but land and 
slaves. ' 

In raising tobacco a seed-bed was started in the early 
spring; later, the young plants were set out from six to 
nine feet apart in each direction. When the plants were 
about one foot high they were topped and pruned, leav- 
ing only seven or eight leaves. After this, the field was 
gone over constantly, the ground between the rows be- 
coming hard beaten paths; the weeds were kept down 



COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 



63 



by hoeing, the worms were picked off, and the suckers 
were cut. This was work that ignorant negroes could 
do as well as anyone; there was Httle to learn, no skill 
was needed, and the negroes were not harmed by the 
monotonous labor in a hot climate. 

When the plants turned brown they were cut and laid 
on the ground over night. Next, they were carried to 
the tobacco shed and hung upon pegs or poles to dry for 
from four to six weeks. Later, they were again piled 




Rolling Tobacco to the Wharf in Virginia 

up to ''sweat," and after the leaves were stripped from 
the stalk they were packed in hogsheads or bundled up 
in long rolls. The hogsheads contained from five hun- 
dred to fifteen hundred pounds of tobacco. When they 
were ready to go to the landing, the hogsheads were rolled 
by hand if the distance was not great; otherwise an axle 
was run through the center of the cask and a horse or an 
ox drew it along the road. If the planter lived back in 
the country, he might have to load his hogsheads upon a 
raft and thus carry them to the main stream and down 
to a landing, where they met a ship from England. 

One slave could care for about three acres of tobacco, 
raising from one and one-half to three or four hogsheads. 



64 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

A planter had to have at least twenty slaves if he wished 
to make it profitable to keep an overseer. Counting the 
timber and waste land, besides the fields planted to crops, 
a plantation had to have about fifty acres for each slave. 
The large plantations averaged perhaps 5000 acres; they 
often contained 15,000 or 20,000 and some had 40,000 
or 50,000 acres; but, of course, not all the land was under 
cultivation. It has already been shown that the worn- 
out land was abandoned. The overseers were either paid 
a salary or given a certain part of the crop. In the lat- 
ter case, it is easy to see why they urged the use of fresh 
land and so kept the plantations spreading. 

There were few merchants and practically no towns 
in colonial Virginia. What were the reasons? Many 
mechanics and men of other occupations came there; 
but they soon saw the ease with which land could be 
obtained and tobacco raised, so they left their original 
trades and became farmers and planters. Since there 
were few good harbors on the coast, the ocean vessels came 
to the planters' wharves on the great rivers. The planter 
preferred to send his crop direct to an EngHsh merchant, 
thinking to save the profit that an American merchant 
would otherwise get. At the same time he sent to Eng- 
land a list of the goods that he wished in return. These 
were to be purchased by the merchant to whom the cargo 
of tobacco was sent. He acted as a middleman, selling 
the tobacco and buying the other goods on commission. 
This was not a very satisfactory way of doing business, 
so far as the planter was concerned. He had to take 
for his tobacco the price that was given him; he had to 
pay for his goods the prices that the London dealers 
asked. One can readily see the chances there were of his 



COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 



65 



being cheated. Very often his orders for goods came to 
more than the value of his crop. The result of this 
method of trading was that many Virginia planters were 
always in debt. They were constantly tempted to order 
large and expensive bills of fine garments, tableware, and 
furniture. In fact, the planter was usually extravagant, be- 
cause it always seemed to him that his thousands of acres 
and scores of slaves must enable him to hve in luxury. 







V,7lA y^^lr 



A Southern Mansion House 



The planter's great dwelling, or mansion house, was 
situated upon the first rise of ground back from the 
river. The road to it ran from the river landing through 
groves and shrubbery to the portico at the front. The 
house might be either of frame or brick construction, 
but it usually had a large chimney at each end. Within 
was always one large room, or ''hall," used as a dining 
and Kving room. There might be a small parlor, but 
usually all the other rooms were bed-rooms. Near the 
mansion house were numerous other buildings; the 
kitchen was a separate house. Then there were the slaves' 
quarters — rude log or plank shanties ranged in a row 
at the rear. Barns, stables, granaries, dairy house, malt 



66 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



house, carpenter shop, and storehouses were scattered 
about. The vegetable and flower gardens, orchard, and 
brick oven were other features of the Httle settlement. 

The plantation, like the small farm, was much more 
than a farmer's home. Here, too, manufacturing was a 




A DINING-ROOM IN A VIRGINIA MANSION 
From " Some Colonial Mansions." Philadelphia, 1890. 



prominent part of the daily life. There was a planta- 
tion carpenter, who built and repaired the houses and 
made and kept in order the farm implements. Often 
there were in addition the blacksmith, tailor, weaver, 
gardener, cooper, tanner, and shoemaker. All of these 
were usually indentured servants or slaves. The products 
of the Virginia plantation (and the same is true of those 
in Maryland and the Carohnas) included more than the 
corn, wheat, beef, mutton, bacon, fruit, vegetables, 



COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 67 

butter, and cheese for the table. There were also hides, 
leather and shoes, iron-work and implements, woolen 
and linen cloth, stockings and garments of the coarser 
kind. The labor employed in these manufactures was 
unskilled, so the articles were for the most part crude. 
The planter bought in England all the finer goods that 
he used: cloth and garments for all his people but the 
slaves; and furniture, much of which was elegant, for 
his house. Besides, he spent much for jewelry, decora- 
tive articles, and books. 

During the short winters the slaves were occupied 
with clearing new land; some of the timber was burned 
and the rest yielded lumber and shingles, and staves 
for barrels and hogsheads. It is not strange that the 
planter, if he watched all these occupations with care, 
must have been a very busy man; nor that his wife, who 
managed the household slaves and all the spinning, weav- 
ing, and dairy work, had her hands full to overflowing. 

The typical planter of Virginia was very hospitable, 
and entertained, sometimes for weeks and months, al- 
most any intelligent and well-mannered stranger who 
might come to his door. This was a pleasant way in 
which to break the monotony of plantation life. The 
planter was fond of fox-hunting and horse-racing; hence, 
he had the best horses in the colonies. He also hunted 
wild horses and cattle and trained his riding horse to 
dash at high speed through the open woods without 
injury to itself or to him. 

Courtesy and fine manners were taught in the planter's 
home; many of the boys were sent to England for their 
education. But it is evident that they believed manual 
labor was only for the servants. Hard work with the 



68 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

hands would lower the master or his family in the eyes 
of the servants and make it difficult to keep authority 
over them. Here in the South, then, were bred many 
strong men and women fit to become leaders and to 
command. 

Were there small farms in Virginia? Yes, many, 
especially on the frontier. When the small farmer held 
land near the large plantation, he could not raise tobacco 
as cheaply as the planter; so, if his land was good, the 
latter often bought him out. If he then bought and 
remained on a strip of poor land, just making a bare 
existence, he soon lost ambition and reared his family in 
poverty and ignorance. He thus became a "poor white," 
and even the negroes looked down upon him. If he 
"went west," near the mountains, he had a better chance. 

The reasons for the two very different types of farm- 
ing in North and South are found, then, partly in the 
nature of the seacoast, the land, and the river systems, 
but chiefly in the nature of the crops. Tobacco, rice, 
and indigo required a kind of labor for which slaves were 
suited; they were money-making crops, and men were 
anxious to raise them on a large scale. On the other 
hand, the grains, flax, and hemp of the North required 
more skilled labor, but less constant attention while the 
crops were growing. In addition, these crops found 
ready markets near at home, for the most part, because 
a considerable portion of the people were engaged in 
other occupations besides farming. These conditions, 
together with the scarcity of labor and the high value 
of land, kept the farms of the North small. 

Important results followed from the different condi- 
tions of life in North and South. In the northern region 



COLONIAL AGRICULTURE 69 

of small farms there grew up a feeling of equality among 
the farmers, while the plantation system of the South 
bred an aristocracy of large owners. Another effect is 
seen in the government of the two sections. In the 
North the people took part more largely in pohtical 
affairs, and hence democratic practices prevailed; while 
in the South the masses followed the leadership of the 
prominent planters, among whom were some of the most 
intelligent and forceful men of colonial times. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE BACK COUNTRY 

From the beginning of our history men had been 
moving westward to find new and cheap lands. Some- 
times, following the river valleys, they first moved north, 

as in the Connecticut 
Valley, which led the 
early settlers into New 
Hampshire and Ver- 
mont; or along the Hud- 
son, until the rich valley 
of the Mohawk was 
found. In Pennsylvania 
the people followed the 
Schuylkill and Susque- 
hanna Rivers and their 
tributaries that led into 
the valleys between the 
parallel mountain ranges. 
South of Pennsylvania 
the mountains trend 
toward the southwest, 




OCEAN 



Coastal Plain, Fall Line, and Back 
Country of the South 



and the plain between the ocean and the mountains be- 
comes wider. As one goes up the rivers that lead back- 
ward from the ocean, he finds a point in each where there 
are rapids or falls. Here the water tumbles over rocks 
that it cannot easily wear away. If all such points on the 
various rivers are connected, as is done in the map, we 



THE BACK COUNTRY 71 

have what is called the "fall line." Above this point the 
country becomes hilly, and large stretches of sandy soil 
are found, upon which are growths of pine trees. This re- 
gion, often rough and sterile, is called the ''pine barrens," 
or in Georgia and Alabama, the ''wire grass" region. 
Still farther inland the country is rolling; the soil is better; 
beautiful open forests of hardwood trees grew there in 
colonial times. Where the land was wet, along the river 
courses, there were dense growths of tall cane, called cane- 
brakes; where the country was open the ground was 
thickly covered with the wild pea-vine. Here was a rich 
region of pleasant climate and beautiful scenery. Whose 
should it be, and what kind of farm life and work would 
its people have? 

We have seen how, in Virginia and the Carolinas, in- 
dentured servants and poor farmers were constantly 
going to the frontier. Many of them settled in the 
"back country" or uplands that have just been described. 
It is also true that some planters who saw here a chance 
to get immense tracts of land, and to hold them for a rise 
in prices, became land speculators in this region. But 
the greater part of the people who came to the back 
country in the later colonial period journeyed there 
from farther north. In Pennsylvania and Maryland 
immigration from Europe was rapid. When the best 
lands east of the mountains in these colonies were taken 
up, and the mountain valleys were once entered, it was 
easier ^to seek new lands by moving southwest than it 
was to cross the mountains and encounter the dangers 
of Indian attack. The story of one family in which 
there was a boy whose later life made him famous in 
American history illustrates this movement. 



72 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



Daniel Boone was the son of an English Quaker, Squire 
Boone, who had come to America with his father in 171 7. 
Squire Boone was a weaver by trade, but like many other 
mechanics in this new country, he bought land as soon as 
he had earned enough money from his trade. He first 

had 250 acres located on a 
tributary of the Schuylkill in 
southeastern Pennsylvania, 
near the town of Reading. 
Here Daniel was born in 1754. 
His father added to the family 
income by work at blacksmith- 
ing, besides weaving, so we may 
guess that very Httle of this 
frontier farm was actually un- 
der cultivation. Squire Boone 
increased his land holdings 
from time to time and came to 
own a grazing tract some five 
or six miles north of the farm in the foothills of the 
mountains. 

To this tract the cattle were sent every spring, in 
charge of Daniel and his mother, who lived there in a 
cabin through the summer. It was Daniel's duty to 
drive the herd to the best feeding grounds and to watch 
them through the long summer days. At night they were 
shut in a pen, safe from danger. His mother made 
butter and cheese, storing them in the cool spring-house 
until autumn, when they were taken down to the village 
for sale. Such was the life of Daniel for several years 
after he reached the age of ten. With a natural love 
for the out-of-doors, he learned all nature's secrets that 




Daniel Boone 



THE BACK COUNTRY 73 

a small boy could comprehend. He learned, too, all the 
Indian's knowledge of the hunt, the trail, and the camp. 

When Daniel was sixteen, his father determined to 
take his wife and family of eleven children and seek new 
lands in the southwest, just as thousands of others were 
doing. With a canvas-covered mover's wagon, pre- 
ceded by the father and boys on horses, and followed by 
the small herd of cattle, they passed down the mountain 
valley and crossed the Potomac at Harpers Ferry. They 
were now in the beautiful Shenandoah valley. Here 
Virginians and men from Pennsylvania and Maryland 
had been settling since 1732, and here the Boones are 
said to have stopped for a year. But they then pushed 
on, crossing the first mountain range to the east at one 
of its many gaps, finally coming out in the Yadkin coun- 
try of North Carolina. Here was land in abundance, 
and the Boones located at Buffalo Lick. 

Six years later, Daniel married and took land for him- 
self a few miles north of his father's farm on Sugar Tree 
Creek. Here he built a rude log cabin, like that of all 
the pioneers of the time, and became a farmer. Raising 
enough corn and pumpkins, pork and beef, to supply a 
family was not a difficult task; but it was a far easier 
and pleasanter task for Daniel to hunt bears, deer, and 
buffaloes. Like other frontiersmen, he salted the skins 
and carried them on pack-horses to the nearest town, or 
even to the Atlantic coast cities. Cloth, hardware, and 
salt were bought and carried on the long trail back home. 
But this hfe was too monotonous for a young man so 
fond of adventure. Boone's gaze was ever turned west- 
ward across the mountain ranges, and there some years 
afterward he led the way as hunter, pioneer, and settler, 



74 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

to the region known as Kentucky. In his later years he 
moved again and Hved until his death in Missouri. It 
is of interest to know that his descendants continued the 
westward movement that he began and were among the 
first settlers in the Willamette valley of Oregon. 

Instead of following the interesting life of Boone, this 
account should now return to the back country east 
of the Alleghany Mountains. Frequent mention has 
been made of the fact that the colonists let horses and 
cattle run wild in the forests. These increased in num- 
bers very rapidly and became hardy and fleet-footed, 
able in some measure to defend themselves against wild 
animals. The upland furnished rich pasturage for the 
stock. Many an early comer to this region found herd- 
ing a profitable business. Such a settler would select a 
tract where there was plenty of cane and pea-vine, and 
clear ground for his corn patch. Game was so plentiful 
that there was no lack of meat. Then the rancher, with 
his assistant cowboys, mounted on the swiftest ponies, 
would surround the wild droves and chase them into 
corrals, where they were branded. 

They would then guard the herd, driving it from one 
place to another in search of new pasturage. Some 
herders got thousands of cattle in this way; not being 
able to count them, they estimated the number by the 
calves that were branded each year. From here the 
cattle and horses were driven to market in the coast 
towns, even as far north as Philadelphia. 

This back country, then, was the first range and ranch 
district of our history; here were the first cowboys, able 
to lasso and brand the wildest steer and to subdue the 
most stubborn horse. Cowpens, where one of the famous 



THE BACK COUNTRY 75 

Revolutionary battles was fought, was the location of one 
of these centers for grazing and rounding up stock; and 
the patriot soldiers who won that battle against Carle- 
ton's forces were, many of them, settlers in the back 
country and the mountain valleys, who swarmed at the 
call of Morgan and other leaders to defend their frontier 
homes. 

As more and more of the settlers like the Boone family 
came into this region, the cattle ranges were turned into 
farms, and herding was pushed farther west. The cattle 
were driven first into the mountain valleys, where the 
grass grew rank and sweet. Often the Indians were 
troublesome and made many raids upon the frontier posts 
and settlements. Hence the farmer's life was not only 
simple and rude, but dangerous as well. 

The back country of the South in colonial times was 
a region of small farms and varied crops. Here were 
the same household industries that we have noted on 
farms and plantations farther east. The streams near 
the mountains furnished good water-power, and many 
grist and lumber mills were erected. There were few 
good roads leading out of this region. Those that ran 
north and brought the traveller to Baltimore and Phila- 
delphia were more frequently used than those that ran 
to the seacoast cities, such as Charleston and Wilmington. 

In short, the back country was very different from 
the large plantation country of tobacco, rice, and indigo, 
and was much more like the North, both in its farms and 
its people. However, a great change was to come about 
in the nature of its agriculture, when the cultivation of 
cotton began in the South and this became the chief crop 
of the upland region. 



CHAPTER VIII 
GEORGE WASHINGTON — FARMER i 

All who have studied American history know some- 
thing about Washington as General and President, but 
much less about him as a farmer. To this business he 
gave strict attention at all times, whatever his other oc- 
cupation. In the management of the farms that made up 
his plantation on the Potomac, he took great pleasure; 
and it was only his strong sense of duty and his devotion 
to the country that made him leave his home to accept 
those most responsible positions — Commander of the 
Army and President of the new Republic. 

Concerning Mount Vernon, Washington said: ''No es- 
tate in United America is more pleasantly situated than 
this. It lies in a high, dry, and healthy country, three 
hundred miles by water from the sea, and as you will see 
by the plan, on one of the finest rivers in the world." 
When he inherited this estate from his half-brother Law- 
rence, it covered about 2500 acres. He added to it, so 
that in 1793 it contained 10,000 acres. The map shows 
that it was composed of four farms, besides the ''Mansion 
House Farm," upon which Washington's house stood. 
A large part of the estate was wooded. The various farms 
were divided into fields, and these were numbered and 

^ This chapter was in type before the author had the opportunity 
of seeing Paul Leland Haworth's excellent work, George Washington: 
Farmer. 



78 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

accurately surveyed. There were 3260 acres under 
cultivation or in meadow, orchard, garden, or clover lots. 

Each farm had a hired overseer, and on some if not 
all there were overseers' houses, besides barns, stables, 
etc. while near by stood the shanties for the slaves of that 
farm. During the long years of Washington's absence 
from home, as Colonel in the French and Indian War, as 
General in the Revolutionary War, and as President, he 
employed eight different managers for his estate. But 
the business of the estate was constantly in his mind, 
and he directed its affairs by correspondence as well as it 
could be done in that way. 

When Washington was at home, he gave the strictest 
attention to his lands, crops, and stock. At seven 
o'clock in the morning he mounted his horse and fre- 
quently made a twenty-mile circuit of the various farms, 
consulting with the overseers and giving directions for 
the management of the estate. He kept exact account of 
every day's history of each of the fields — what work 
was going on, what crop was being planted or harvested, 
what stock he had and how it was being cared for, what 
new seeds or trees were being tried, besides the exact 
yield in bushels or pounds of each crop. And many 
v/ere the hours late at night that he spent in writing the 
journal of all these details. 

What, may be asked, were Washington's ideas of farm- 
ing? He knew very well about the shiftless methods to 
be found everywhere in America. Of this matter he 
said: "The general custom has been to raise a crop of 
Indian corn (maize), which, according to the mode of 
cultivation, is a good preparation for wheat; after which 
the ground is respited (except from weeds, and every 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 79 

trash that can contribute to its foulness) for about 
eighteen months; and so on, alternately, without any 
dressing, till the land is exhausted, when it is turned over, 
without being sown with grass-seeds, or reeds, or any 
method taken to restore it; and another piece is ruined 
in the same manner. No more cattle is raised than can 
be supported by lowland meadows, swamps, etc., and 
the tops and blades of Indian corn; as very few persons 
have attended to sowing grasses, and connecting cattle 
with their crops. Indian corn is the chief support of 
our laborers and horses. Our lands were originally very 
good; but use and abuse have made them quite otherwise." 

Washington strongly condemned this method of farm- 
ing. He saw that it had resulted in lowering the aver- 
age crop of wheat in Virginia from thirty to eight or ten 
bushels per acre. He was a student of the best Enghsh 
writings upon agriculture, sending there for books and 
corresponding with the best authorities both in England 
and America. So he was thoroughly informed about 
rotation, fertilization, and the use of clover and root 
crops. He beUeved in a scientific treatment of the soil 
and worked hard to bring his managers and overseers 
to understand and to apply the best principles known at 
that time. 

As the first means of keeping his lands from being 
worn out, Washington decided to grow less tobacco and 
corn and more wheat. Tobacco, he saw, was very hard 
on the soil, and of corn he decided to raise only the neces- 
sary supply. In the second place, he would have a regu- 
lar rotation of crops, planned years ahead. Here is one 
such plan, covering a period of seven years: First year, 
corn and potatoes in alternate rows; planted in the fall 



8o AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

to wheat for the second year's crop; third year, buck- 
wheat, plowed in for manure; fourth year, wheat; fifth, 
sixth, and seventh years, clover and grasses. This sys- 
tem was to be appHed to the seven fields of one farm, 
and thus the various crops were to be kept rotating in 
the order mentioned. Another plan was this: First 
year, corn and potatoes; second, wheat; third, buck- 
wheat; fourth, clover; fifth, wheat; sixth, buckwheat; 
seventh, clover. 

Washington calculated in these and similar plans just 
how many days' work of plowing, cultivating, and har- 
vesting were necessary for each field; also, what yield 
might be expected from each and how much would be 
the profit. 

The most prominent idea in all of his plans was that of 
keeping his land in good condition. To accomplish 
this his farms must produce much manure, hence the 
care and increase of stock was a very important matter. 
This was very different from the usual method of farming 
at that time; but Washington's ideas represented ad- 
vanced views that were gaining ground among intelli- 
gent farmers. He argues many times for intensive 
farming, upon the principle stated to his manager, to 
whom he wrote about a certain matter, "not to undertake 
in this, or in anything else, more than you can accomphsh 
well : — recollecting always that a thing but half done is 
never done; — ■ and well done, is, in a manner done for 
ever." ^ 

Moreover, Washington beHeved in keeping up the 
appearance of his estate. He says, ''I should begrudge 

^ This and numerous other quotations are from George Washington and 
Mt. Vernoti, Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, Vol. IV. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 8i 

no reasonable expence that will contribute to the neatness 
of my Farms : — for nothing pleases me better than to 
see them in good order, and everything trim, handsome, 
and thriving about them." But in this respect the con- 
duct of his estate by several of the managers was a great 
disappointment. He found it impossible to keep up 
its fertility and appearance while he was absent. Upon 
his return home in 1797 he found ''everything in a de- 
ranged and the buildings in a decaying state." This was 
in spite of the fact that Washington required weekly 
reports from his manager, giving all details concerning 
the work on each field and the care of the stock. Each 
week, too, he wrote a long letter giving advice and direc- 
tions, sometimes reproving, and again 'warning the 
manager against the mistakes that were constantly being 
made. 

One principal source of trouble was the character of 
the overseers in charge of the five farms at Mount Vernon. 
He found his land ''hard bound," due to the "insuffer- 
able conduct" of his overseers. He writes to his manager, 
Mr. Pearce, to keep the overseers from running about 
too much. If any of them are found inattentive to their 
duties, he says, "admonish them in a calm but firm 
manner of the consequences. If this proves ineffectual, 
discharge them at any season of the year without scruple 
or hesitation, and do not pay them a copper." It was 
very difficult to make the overseers give exact reports 
of their crops, stock, etc. Some of them had no authority 
over the slaves, and so got little work from them. 

But the greatest difficulty encountered by Washington 
was in the character of slave labor. Some of his slaves 
had been inherited from his half-brother; others were 



82 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the property of Mrs. Washington. The two lots had 
intermarried and many children had resulted. Wash- 
ington's treatment of his slaves was just and humane. 
When some complained that they had not enough meal 
to eat, he wrote, '' My wish and desire is that they should 
have as much as they can eat without waste, and no more." 
Once, when a negro boy died, he wrote, ^'I hope every 
necessary care and attention was afforded him." On 
the other hand, he wished his slaves to be ruled with a 
firm hand. For instance, he once directed with regard 
to a runaway slave: ^'Let Abram get his deserts when 
taken, by way of example; but don't trust Crow [one 
of the overseers] to give it to him — he is swayed more 
by passion than by judgment in all his connections." 

In spite of their good treatment, these slaves, like 
all others, proved to be a sore trial to their master. Wash- 
ington' said emphatically that 'J there are few-Negroes 
who wijl workjLinles s there be a constant eye, on them 
— or will not slight it Jf there is not this eye." In the 
reports made by his managers there were constantly cases 
of slaves being absent from work on account of sickness. 
Concerning this he said: ''I never wish my people to 
work when they are really sick, or unfit for it; on the 
contrary that all necessary care should be taken of them 
when they are so : — ■ but if you do not examine into their 
complaints, they will lay by when no more ails them 
than ails those who stick to their business." Again: ''my 
people (some of them) will lay up for a month, at the end 
of which no visible change in their countenance, nor the 
loss of an ounce of flesh, is discoverable; and their allow- 
ance of provision is going on as if nothing ailed them." 
Betty Davis, he noticed, was off duty two days of every 



GEORGE VMSHINGTON 83 

week; he declared her to be one of the most idle creatures 
upon earth, and also one of the most deceitful; ''a more 
lazy, deceitful, and impudent huzzy, is not to be found 
in the United States than she is." And Betty was not 
the only offender of this character. 

It was not only laziness, but also waste_aiidJthef t^ of 
which the slaves were g uilty. If allowed, they would 
go from one task to another, merely "killing time"; 
perhaps driving a cart with little more of a load than a 
man could carry on his back. Washington complained 
that one-half his pork was spoiled for lack of proper 
attention in smoking, and he thought that he did not get 
more than a small part of the young pigs that were born. 
His horses were ridden at all hours of the night and some- 
times foundered, or the mares were caused to lose their 
colts. Every product of the farms had to be kept under 
lock and key. Even then the slaves would steal when 
carrying from the fields to the granaries or from the store- 
house to the kitchen. Some of these stolen goods they 
ate and some they carried off and sold to the neighbors 
or to the merchants at Alexandria. 

Washington once said concerning his oats, ''What 
by waste, mismanagement, or something worse, I have 
got of late very little from any of my overseers." Even 
his fish nets and the wool from the backs of dead sheep 
were stolen. When his standing timber was being cut 
by his neighbors, he wrote, ''It is really shameful to be 
treated in the manner I am by people who take such 
liberties with my timber and wood during my absence." 
The negro women who spun yarn stole part of the wool;, 
and those who made garments stole cloth. 

Washington had a gang of eight or ten negro carpenters 



84 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

who were in charge of a drunken overseer. The lazy 
fellows wasted more time than they spent in work and 
were a constant annoyance to their master. Yet he 
would not discharge the overseer, for his family would 
certainly suffer from poverty. 

Like many other planters of his time, Washington saw 
the wrong of slavery and wished that it did not exist. 
Writing to Robert Morris in 1786, he said, ''I can only 
say, that there is not a man living, who wishes more sin- 
cerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abohtion 
of it." Again, he said, ''I never mean, unless some par- 
ticular circumstances shall compel me to it, to possess 
another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes 
to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country 
may be abolished by law." He provided in his will for 
the emancipation of his slaves at the death of Mrs. 
Washington. 
fy Washington put the whole matter of his agricultural 
policy into a few short statements. He said that these 
were his favorite objects: i. To recover his land 
from its gullied and exhausted state — due to neglect. 
2. To lay down all low and swampy land to grass. 3. To 
have clover lots enough for soiling work-horses and 
cattle, and for other purposes. 4. To substitute live 
for dead fences. 5. To give attention to stock, and 
their increase. 6. To look into the little as well as the 
great concerns of his farms. 7. To use every possible 
means of fertilizing his fields. 

He showed his progressive ideas also in relation to 
farm machinery. He said to Pearce, *'I am never sparing 
(with proper economy) in furnishing my farms with any 
and every kind of tool and implement that is calculated 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



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I. 


Mansion House 


II. 


Spinning House 


2. 


Kitchen and Servants' Hall 


12. 


Blacksmith Shop 


V 


Store House 


13- 


House for families 


4- 


Smoke House 


14. 


Hothouse 


s. 


Wash House 


IS- 


Kitchen Gardens 


6. 


Coach House 


16. 


Spring House 


7- 


Double Coach House and Stables 


17- 


For manure 


8. 


Barn and Carpenter Shop 


18. 


School 


9- 

[O. 


Lodgings for white servants 
Tailor's and shoemaker's shop 


19. 


Lawn 



The Buildings at Mount Vernon 

This plan was made by an Englishman, Samuel Vaughn, who visited 
Mount Vernon in 1787. 



86 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

to do good neat work." In more than one case he planned 
the making of his plows and he also had one sent to him 
from England. 

Agricultural experiments were constantly in progress 
at Mount Vernon. In 1788 a German gardener was 
employed, and while President, Washington sent home a 
great variety of seeds and plants for trial. He gave 
exact directions as to how these were to be cared for. 
First, it was East India hemp and ''a particular kind of 
oats." Then Jefferson, who was also a Virginia planter, 
sent to Mount Vernon a bag of ''poccoon" or Illinois 
nut — the pecan; also, some French furze and saintfoin. 
Next, it was "four kinds of seeds sent him by a gentleman 
in England, some or all of which came from the East 
Indies"; then seeds of nankeen cotton. Five thousand 
plants of the white thorn were sent from London. He 
tried also different varieties of turnips; some chicory 
seed; Botany Bay grass seed; clove seed; new varieties 
of apples; seeds of the cucumber tree and the honey 
locust. 

Washington tried in many ways to discover whether 
his methods of managing the plantation were the best. 
For instance, he ordered one hundred bushels of wheat 
taken to his mill, and the flour, bran, and middlings sold; 
another hundred bushels were sold without grinding. 
When the returns from each transaction came in, he 
found that it was more profitable to grind his wheat. 
The Mount Vernon "superfine" flour had the reputa- 
tion of being as good as any ground in the colonies, and 
it is said that it was admitted to the ports of the West 
Indies without inspection. Again, Washington ordered 
that a bullock should be fattened on potatoes alone; 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 87 

another on corn meal; and a third on the mixture of the 
two feeds. Thus he sought to find the best method of 
feeding. 

However, the pains taken by the master of Mount 
Vernon to improve its cultivation by experiments re- 
sulted in disappointment. He said, ''It would seem as 
if my blundering overseers would forever put it out 
of my power to ascertain facts from the accuracy of 
experiments." 

Washington was very fond of trees. He took great 
care to see that no more trees than necessary should be 
cut; for, he said, ''It is always in one's power to cut a 
tree down, — but time only can place them where one 
would have them, after the ground is stripped of them." 
To illustrate his interest in fruit trees and vines, one day's 
entry in his journal may be cited: "March 21, 1763. 
Grafted 40 cherrys, 12 Magnum Bonum Plums. Planted 
4 nuts of the Mediterranean Paine. Set out 55 cuttings of 
the Medeira grape. Grafted or planted Spanish pears, 
Butter pears, Black Pear, Bergamy Pear, New Town 
Pippins." 

Besides his slaves, Washington made use of indentured 
servants. Thus, in 1786, he bought the time of a Dutch 
family — man, wife, and child. The man was a ditcher, 
mower, etc.; and the wife was expected to spin, wash, 
and milk. The same year Ryan, a shoemaker, and 
Bowen, a tailor, came to Mount Vernon for three years' 
service, Washington having paid £12 for the time of 
each. The gardener's wife was expected to give out wool 
and flax to the spinners, and to keep account of the thread 
and yarn received from them; also to make linen cloth 
for the negroes. The hides of dead cattle were tanned 



88 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

by ''old man Jack;" "Mulatto Will" was kept busy 
making shoes. These were doubtless slaves. But a 
Scotchman was hired outright as an expert repair man, 
to keep in order the carts, plows, and other implements, 
as well as the spinning wheels and looms. 

Fishing was an important industry on the Potomac 
frontage of this estate. When the fish ran in schools, 
in the spring, Washington ordered that seining should 
go on day and night. The fish was salted and packed 
for later use, and some was shipped. 

Washington was particularly fond of fine stock, and 
he grieved greatly that his horses were abused, his lambs 
died uncared-for, and his cattle and sheep grew less 
valuable during his absence. He saw that for his farm 
work, mules were better than horses, being stronger, 
requiring less feed, and being better able to endure the 
abuse that all animals received at the hands of the negroes. 
In 1788 the King of Spain sent him two jacks, one of 
which died on the voyage across; and Lafayette sent 
him a jack and two jennets from the Island of Malta. 
Washington bred a fine grade of mules, some of which he 
used for his carriage. He gave directions to have twenty 
yoke of oxen broken for the plow; these were to be worked 
only on alternate days, and after they were eight years 
old were to be used for beef. 

As on other plantations, there was not enough shelter 
for all the cattle, though Washington believed that there 
should be. The pigs ran in the woods, so Washington 
could not tell how many he had. He spoke of wishing 
to try the experiment of raising pigs in the sty. The 
cattle were kept in pens, which were moved from one 
field to another for the sake of the manure. Particular 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 89 

attentioPx was given at Mount Vernon to the breeding 
of sheep. In 1789 they yielded an average of four and 
one-half pounds of wool, but by 1794 this had fallen to 
half as much. 

Like the other Virginia planters, Washington sold his 
tobacco in London. And like them, too, he seems some- 
times to have been cheated both in the amount that he 
received for it and in the prices that he was made to pay 
for the goods he bought. Of the latter there was great 
variety: suits, hats, gloves, and sword belt for himself; 
linen, satin, ribbons, aprons, handkerchiefs, hose, satin 
shoes, and kid gloves for the women of the household; 
pins, ^'6 lb. perfumed powder," ''3 lb. best Scotch snuff," 
pickles, cheese, tea, corks, raisins, almonds, sugar, soap, 
mustard, ''hhd. of the best porter," ''100 lb. white bis- 
cuit," for household use; for the farms there were seeds 
of various kinds, besides nails, spades, sickles, saws, and 
other hardware. 

One is impressed with this great man's patience in the 
face of all his plantation perplexities and his endurance 
of annoyances during his absence from home. Many 
times his mind must have been weighed down with anxi- 
ety over the conduct of his affairs at Mount Vernon, at 
the very time when the awful troubles of the Revolution 
or the trials of his presidency were most heavy. We may 
imagine his mind turning, on wakeful nights, to wonder 
what would result from the carelessness, idleness, and 
waste always present at home. Perhaps it was after 
a blustering night full of such anxiety that he wrote to 
Pearce: "Make my people at the mansion house be care- 
ful about the fire; for it is no uncommon thing for them 
to be running from one house to another in cold windy 



go AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

nights with sparks of fire flying, and dropping as they 
go along, without paying the least attention to the 
consequences." Those were the days before matches, 
and it was easier to borrow a brand from a neigh- 
boring fireplace than to use the flint and steel and 
tinder-box. 

At the time of his death, Washington was one of the 
largest landowners in the United States. Besides the 
Mount Vernon estate, he had more than 40,000 acres 
located in various places in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York. These, with his 
town lots in Washington and Alexandria, made his estate 
worth about $500,000 — one of the largest fortunes in 
America. Washington's experience as surveyor on the 
vast estate of Lord Fairfax, before the French and Indian 
War, gave him a chance to see the country west of the 
mountains. He had great faith in the future value of 
these lands, so he bought them in large tracts. After 
the French and Indian War, Virginia gave land warrants 
as bounties to her soldiers. Washington's share was 
15,000 acres. Besides, he bought the bounty rights of 
other soldiers. In later life he grew tired of holding so 
much land and desired to sell it. He even wished to 
rent all the farms, except the mansion house farm of 
his Mount Vernon estate. 

Washington was in correspondence with some of the 
leading agriculturists in England and when the British 
Agricultural Society was founded by his friend Sir John 
Sinclair, he was made an honorary member. In his last 
annual message to Congress, written in 1796, he urged 
that a similar National agricultural society should be 
founded in this country. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 91 

One who studies Washington as a farmer must feel 
that he showed here great inteUigence. He was dili- 
gent and progressive. He was eager to learn of the 
newest and best methods; but at the same time he was 
careful and thorough. Had he been able to devote his 
entire time to farming, he might easily have been first in 
agriculture, as he was in war and in peace. 



CHAPTER IX 
FIRST IMPROVEMENTS IN AMERICAN AGRICULTURE 

During the colonial period little progress was made in 
the direction of better farming. Less progress was made 
in America than in England, simply because in this 
country it seemed less necessary to 
farm in a careful manner. However, 
as the winters in northern colonies 
were longer and more severe than 
those in England, the raising of hay 
for winter feeding was more necessary. 
Hence one improvement in colonial 
agriculture was made when some of 
the native grasses were cultivated. 
The most important of these was 
timothy. This grass received its 
name from Timothy Hanson, who, 
some of the seed from New York to 




Timothy 



about 1720, took 
the Carolinas. 

As compared with the knowledge and methods used 
to-day, the agriculture of that time seems very backward. 
There was little use of fertilizers, Httle rotation of crops, 
and little care of stock. Superstitions about the phases 
of the moon and weather signs had much more influence 
upon farm management than did scientific knowledge. 
There was, in fact, no scientific knowledge of how plants 
grow and why they thrive or fail. There were very few 



FIRST IMPROVEMENTS 93 

men interested in this subject. Among those few was 
Benjamin FrankHn, who, though not a farmer, applied 
to this matter the intelligence an ' ^ommon sense for which 
he was noted. In 1749 he proposed that there should 
be agricultural education for young men. The leading 
authority upon the subject in America was Jared Eliot, 
grandson of that John Eliot who was missionary to the 
New England Indians in earlier times. He wrote the 
first book on agriculture that was published in this coun- 
try (about 1750). At the close of the American Revo- 
lution there was not an agricultural paper in the United 
States. There were no agricultural societies; no fairs 
or exhibits were held; and no premiums were offered 
for excellent products. 

As indicated in the previous chapter, Washington was, 
of course, interested in- all such matters. In his last 
annual message he urged that Congress should appro- 
priate money for national agricultural boards that would 
collect and spread information. He also recommended 
that money be appropriated by Congress to be given as 
premiums ''to encourage and assist the spirit of discovery 
and improvement" in agriculture. Washington was 
interested in agriculture not only because he enjoyed his 
own estate, but also because he saw its importance to the ^ 
nation as a whole. He said, "It will not be doubted thatj 
with reference either to individual or national welfare, 
agriculture is of primary importance." 

The first agricultural societies in this country were 
formed at Charleston, South Carohna, in 1784, and at 
Philadelphia in 1785. Societies were formed in New 
York in 1791 and in Massachusetts in 1792. The society 
at Charleston gave premiums for various kinds of products 



94 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

— the vine, merino sheep, figs, olive oil, and hops. It 
also carried on a small experiment farm. From the 
meetings, exhibits, and premiums of these societies came 
much good. They often held plowing matches that 
caused men to see the need not only for strong oxen, but 
also for well-shaped plows. This period accordingly 
brought the first improvements in plows. 

The first agricultural journals regularly pubhshed 
were The American Farmer, issued at Baltimore in 1819, 
and The Plow Boy, issued at Albany the same year. The 
New England Farmer began at Boston in 1822, The New 
York Farmer at New York in 1827, and The Southern 
Agriculturist at Charleston in 1828. 

This, too, was the time when the raising of blooded 
stock in America began. From England were brought 
the new fines of Hereford and Shorthorn cattle. Henry 
Clay was one of the first to import Hereford stock, bring- 
ing them to his farm in Kentucky in 181 7. Thorough- 
bred horses were also imported from England. The 
Morgan stock of horses was founded in New England 
about the year 1800. In Pennsylvania were raised the 
great, strong Conestoga horses, used for drawing freight 
and movers' wagons across the mountains. 

The greatest change of the times, however, came about 
in sheep raising. In colonial times most sheep were 
black; their wool did not need dyeing; and their average 
fleece was two or three pounds. Almost every farmer 
raised enough to furnish his family with homespun 
woolen cloth, but he was apt to kill and eat the best of 
his lambs. While the sheep ran in the woods the grade 
became poorer, rather than better. There were no 
woolen mills in America, chiefly because farming was 



FIRST IMPROVEMENTS 95 

more profitable than manufacturing. But even small 
factories were kept down (after 1699) by a law of England 
that the colonists should not make woolen goods for 
shipment from one place to another. So, while the coarse 
woolens worn in the colonies were made in the homes 
of the farmers, the people bought great quantities of finer 
cloths from England. 

When the Stamp Act was passed, in 1765, the angry 
colonists tried to spite the mother country by ceasing to 
buy her manufactured goods. They made agreements 
and formed societies for this purpose and to discourage 
the eating of mutton. Similar action was taken by co- 
lonial assemblies, some of which also gave bounties for 
the production of wool and woolen goods. 

The refusal of the colonists to buy British goods re- 
sulted in the merchants and manufacturers in England 
demanding the repeal of the Stamp Act. It was therefore 
repealed in 1766. But when the Townshend Acts, levy- 
ing more taxes, were passed (1767) and the quarrel grew 
bitter in the years that followed, more efforts were made 
to increase the number of sheep and to encourage the 
manufacture of woolen goods. After the Revolution, 
the Americans were glad to buy again the cheap manu- 
factured products of England, so no very great im- 
provement in the wool industry resulted. The EngHsh 
prohibited any person from taking their improved 
breeds of sheep out of that country, the penalty for 
doing so being that the offender lost his right hand. 
While some persons evaded this law, they were few 
in number. 

Among those most interested in a better grade of sheep 
was George Washington, who had at this time 700 or 



g6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

800 sheep on his estate. George Washington Parke 
Custis, grandson of Martha Washington, had an estate 
at Arhngton, across the Potomac from the National 
capital. He took great pains in the improvement of 
his sheep. It was his custom to hold annual sheep shear- 
ings, to which the neighboring farmers and planters were 
invited. Premiums were given for the best sheep, and 
Custis entertained his guests under Washington's great 
war tent. 

But the greatest improvement in American sheep was 
to come about by the importation of better breeds from 
Europe. The finest sheep in Europe were the merinos, 
raised in Spain. Here were great flocks on the estates 
of wealthy landlords. The Spanish government, in order 
to keep a monopoly on merino sheep, prohibited their 
exportation without the king's permission. But this 
permission had been granted in many cases, and merinos 
had been taken to France and to Saxony, where they 
were successfully raised. 

Three merinos, it is said, were smuggled out of Spain 
and brought to Boston by a William Foster, in 1793. 
Having to return to Europe soon after, he left them with 
his friend Mr. Craigie of Cambridge. The latter knew 
nothing of the new breed of sheep and so killed and ate 
them. Some years after, Mr. Craigie is said to have paid 
$1,000 for a fine merino ram. In 1799 two Frenchmen, 
Dupont de Nemours and Delessert, brought to their 
estates on the Hudson River a number of merino rams. 
Soon after, other sheep of this breed were brought to 
Massachusetts and Connecticut by Seth Adams and 
Colonel Humphreys. Adams later moved to Ohio, 
taking the first merinos west of the mountains. Still 



FIRST IMPROVEMENTS 97 

later, a large flock was driven from Connecticut to 
Kentucky. 

One of the most intelligent farmers of the country was 
Robert Livingston, who had a large estate on the Hudson 
River. Livingston will be remembered as a member 
of the committee that drew up the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. He was Chancellor of New York State and 
it was he who administered the oath of office to President 
Washington when he was inaugurated in 1789. President 
Jefferson appointed Livingston minister to France, and 
it was he, with the aid of Monroe, who brought about the 
purchase of Louisiana. In 1802, Livingston had two pairs 
of merinos shipped to his estate from France. These 
came from Rambouillet, near Paris, where the King of 
France, Louis XVI, had a government farm. Here he 
kept a great flock of merinos from which the people of 
France were improving the grade of their sheep. Liv- 
ingston also bought sheep from the flock of M. Delessert, 
which was sold about this time. 

After his return home, Livingston talked and wrote 
about the improvement of sheep and thus aroused much 
interest in the subject. In 1809 he wrote a pamphlet 
entitled "An Essay on Sheep." The state of New York 
offered a premium of $50 to any person who brought a 
merino ram into a county where there was none. It 
also lent $5000 to a man who established a woolen fac- 
tory at Poughkeepsie and offered a reward of $150 for the 
best two hundred yards of woolen -cloth made in the state. 
A woolen manufacturer named Elkanah Watson bought a 
pair of Livingston's merinos and exhibited them at a fair 
held at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 18 10. This aroused 
so much interest that the next year there was founded 



98 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the Berkshire Agricultural Society, which had great 
influence in stimulating agricultural improvement in 
western New England. 

Strange to say, it was a great war in Europe that 
made possible the largest importations of merinos into 
this country. It came about in this way. Louis XVI of 
France was a despot, and there was a great revolution 
directed against his government, beginning in 1789, the 
same year that Washington was inaugurated. This 
French Revolution went on until Louis and his wife, 
Marie Antoinette, besides thousands of the nobility of 
France, lost their heads under the guillotine. Then 
arose a great military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, who 
used the army to get control of the government. It was 
Napoleon's ambition to conquer the other countries sur- 
rounding France. Spain was one of these. The French 
armies invaded Spain in 1801 and fought many battles. 
One can easily imagine that the hungry soldiers took 
pleasure in eating and driving away many thousands of 
the fine merino sheep of which the Spanish people were so 
proud. In vain the Spanish government tried to stop 
their exportation. Great flocks were driven to Portugal 
and shipped from there to the other countries of Europe. 
George III, King of England, caused some to be taken to 
that country. 

When Napoleon set up a new government in Spain, 
the officers, in order to get money, seized the estates of 
rich landlords who had fought the French. Their flocks 
of merinos were sold and thousands were brought to 
America. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison each 
got a pair of these sheep for their estates in Virginia. 
Jefferson had a plan for distributing free one ram to each 



FIRST IMPROVEMENTS 99 

county in Virginia. He also improved the breed of 
shepherd dogs. 

It may be said, then, that the forty years following] 
the American Revolution saw some hopeful signs of im- \ ' 
provement in our agriculture. Leading men were begin- \ 
ning to think and write upon the best methods, societies 
were formed, papers were published, and the value of 
high grade stock began to be appreciated. 



CHAPTER X 
PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 

In colonial times, the Alleghany mountain ranges 
were covered with forests and a dense undergrowth of 
brambles, shrubs, and vines. When the westward-moving 
settlers passed through the gaps of the Blue Ridge, instead 




View in the Alleghany IMountains 

of continuing straight west they went southwest between 
the ranges. There were no roads over the mountains, 
only Indian trails. In many places it was impossible for 
a horse to push through the interlacing branches of the 
dense mountain forests. 

The first English colonists who visited the country be- 
yond the mountains were hunters and traders in furs. 



PIONEER FAR]\1ERS OF THE WEST 



lOI 



They returned to the coast and told of wonderfully rich 
lands that stretched away to the Mississippi River, 
From this region the French were driven by the last French 
and Indian war (1763). In the colonies there were plenty 
of sturdy, restless young men, eager for adventure and 
anxious to build for themselves new homes in the wilder- 
ness. Some had been indentured servants; others were 
sons in large families who had to make their own way in 
the world; many were from the Scotch-Irish settlements 
in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. 

One of those, as we have seen, who led the way to the 
promised land beyond the mountains was Daniel Boone, 
who was fitted for this task both by his character and by 
his experience since boyhood. Directly west of Boone's 
home on the Yadkin, and just beyond the first range 
of mountains, lay a backwoods settlement known as 
Watauga, situated on the headwaters of the Holston 
River, a tributary of the Tennessee. This was a farming 
community 

such as was .,....-^.--- 

described in 
the chapter 
upon the 
back coun- 
try. From 
Watauga, 
Boone and 
his compan- 
ions followed 

the buffalo path and Indian trail that led through 
the valleys and along the mountain sides and that 
finally passed by way of Cumberland Gap across the 




;^.SE=^.i.^U:=^P 



CuilBERLAND GaP 



. I02 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



last range and thence out upon the land that we know 
as Kentucky. This was a beautiful region. Great trees 
towered toward the sun, and where they stood thickly 
there was little undergrowth. Grape-vines climbed the 
straight trunks of oaks, chestnuts, walnuts, and sycamores 
and then swung from tree to tree in graceful festoons. 
Many streams ran from the mountain sides, and where 



NEW YORK 




Mountain Trails and the Western Country 

they passed through level country they were bordered 
by stretches of canebrake. 

This was to be the home of the first American farmers 
beyond the mountain ranges. Here were no Indian vil- 
lages, but the tribes of the country north of the Ohio 
River and those who lived farther south often sent hunt- 
ing and war parties through Kentucky. When hostile 
bands met, there was sure to be a struggle, and so this 
region became known as the ^'dark and bloody ground." 

Boone first travelled through the Kentucky forests in 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 



103 



1769, and within ten years after that time several small 
settlements had been made by adventurous Americans. 
Among these were Boonesboro, Harrodsburg, and Lexing- 
ton, the last named after the town in Massachusetts 
where the first battle of the American Revolution was 
fought (1775). In some cases the log cabins of the 
settlers were built facing each other in the form of a 
rectangle, so that their backs formed a sohd wall. Or, if 
there were gaps between them, these were filled by log 
palisades. At the corners were square blockhouses, pro- 
jecting beyond the lines of cabins. The blockhouses had 
overhanging second stories, and loopholes through which 
the enemy could be watched and fired upon. The people 
lived in the cabins of these ''forts" or ''stations," or 
near by, and their 
fields were within 
a short distance. 
Often, in times of 
danger, the men had 
to take their guns 
into the fields where 
they worked, and 
sometimes a sentry 
watched for the 
Indian war party 
that might come at 
any time. 

In 1775 the people of the Kentucky settlements held a 
convention at Boonesboro. Here laws were made; among 
them was one for preserving the breed of horses, and 
another for preserving the "range" — the vacant land 
where the cattle roamed. 




A Frontier Settlement — Boonesboro 



I04 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

Students of American history will remember that 
George Rogers Clark, a surveyor, lived in Kentucky at 
this time and that, at the outbreak of the Revolution, 
western Indians were incited by British officers to attack 
the Kentucky settlements. Clark saw how this might be 
prevented if the old French posts north of the Ohio River 
were taken from the British. Clark captured Kaskaskia 
and Vincennes, and thus not only protected the western 
farmers during the war, but also made it more certain 
that the country north of the Ohio should belong to the 
United States when the struggle was over. 

It was not until some years after the Revolution that 
Americans made settlements in that region. But, once 
begun, the occupation of its fertile lands took place very 
rapidly. By the year 1800, along the Ohio and its tribu- 
tary streams, were thousands of "clearings," where Western 
farmers were making homes in this new land. The map 
shows where the people lived whose life and agriculture 
are now to be described. It also shows the routes by 
which they came to the West. Why should they have 
left the safe and comfortable Hfe of the East to face all 
the dangers and hardships of the journey across the 
mountains and the life in the forest clearings? Surely 
they must have been men and women of faith and 
courage. 

It has been said that east of the mountains the farmers 
were cultivating the soil without enriching it, and wearing 
out one field after another. Naturally, as settlement 
approached the mountains, the price of land became 
higher. Many who desired fresh land went beyond the 
mountains rather than pay the high price for land in 
the East. They might have remained to work as hired 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 



105 



laborers or as renters of farms. But everywhere among 
these people we find a strong desire to own their own 
farms. When this became more difficult in the East, 




31ap showing 
Where People Lived 
11 1800 



Notice that the Western settlers are mainly south of the Ohio River. 

men took their families to face the certain dangers of the 
western wilderness. 

Ownership of a farm meant independence; it gave the 
owner a feeling of equality with every other man; it 
opened the way of opportunity for himself and for his 
children. Nowhere in America, where new land always 
lay to the west, would men consent to become as the 
peasants of Europe — dependent upon great landlords, 
regarded as a lower class of society, and shut out from the 
chance to improve and advance in wealth, education, 



I06 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

and social standing. Here lie the motives that sent men 
first across the Alleghanies, and then still westward across 
the Mississippi and beyond to the Pacific Ocean. 

The story of this westward movement may well be told 
in connection with our agricultural history, since nearly 
all the early pioneers were farmers, and but for them there 
would have been Httle reason for the westward movement 
of merchants, manufacturers, and men of other occupa- 
tions. 

How did the Western settler travel to his new home? 
No wagon could cross the mountains in those early days, 
so they were obhged to go on foot or on horseback until, 
in the course of time, th6 trails were smoothed and 
widened. Some pushed small hand-carts before them, 
laden with their goods. When the roads were made 
passable, through Pennsylvania and up the Potomac, 
the covered wagon, costing perhaps $40 or $50, was the 
regular mode of conveyance. If it reached Pittsburgh 
without overturning, the travelers were fortunate. 

Se.veral families with wagons went in a group, and when 
evening came they camped by the roadside, where they 
visited after supper, laughing over the adventures and 
hardships of the journey. Sometimes bands of movers 
with long pack-trains of horses filed along the valleys 
south of Pennsylvania and Maryland until they reached 
Watauga; and from here they passed by the ''Wilderness 
Road" through Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. The 
distance from Philadelphia to Louisville by this route was 
about 825 miles. 

When the Ohio River was reached, or the Tennessee 
River in the south, the journey was quite apt to be con- 
tinued by water. The single traveller in search of a 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 



107 



location to which he would later bring his family might 
go down the river in a canoe or in a pirogue — a hol- 
lowed-out log. Others took their chances of wreck and 
of Indian attack on a raft. But most of those who 
moved goods and famihes did so in a kind of flatboat 
known as an ''ark." This was from thirty to fifty feet 
in length and ten or fifteen feet wide. It was roofed over, 




A Flatboat 

except at one end. At both prow and stern were oarsmen 
to guide the craft away from logs and sandbars, keeping 
it in the current, where it floated at the rate of a few miles 
an hour. 

Leaving the Ohio River at some convenient point, the 
travellers went overland to their new location, or up 
some smaller stream into Kentucky on the south or Ohio 
on the north. For this purpose a keel boat was used, 
long and narrow and propelled against the current by 
men with poles. 

At some times the numbers of those who thus travelled 
westward were larger than at others. After the Revolu- 
tion, hard times in the East led many to seek their for- 



io8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



tunes in the West. So, too, at the time of the Embargo 
(1807-9) and the War of 181 2, when Eastern farmers had 
less sale abroad than formerly for their products, thou- 
sands took this way of finding a better living. Soon the 
United States government saw the necessity of making 




Route of the National Road, 181 2-1840 

the means of getting to the West more convenient, and 
began in 181 1 to build the National or Cumberland Road. 
This had a wide road-bed, covered with stone, and was 
gradually built westward from Fort Cumberland in west- 
ern Maryland to Wheehng, and thence through central 
Ohio and Indiana into Illinois. Meanwhile, the steam- 
boat had been invented and men began to use it on the 
Ohio River (181 1); and thus the number of movers to the 
West was greatly increased. 

Arrived at his destination, the pioneer farmer built a 

cabin and then cleared 
enough land for the first 
year's crop. Perhaps a 
"half -faced camp" was 
all he could build the 
first season. This was 
merely three sides of a 
cabin, over which there 
was a roof of brush or 
It was in such a cabin that the boy Abraham 




Western Settlement 



thatch. 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 109 

Lincoln spent the first winter after his father moved from 
Kentucky to Indiana (1816-17). But usually there were 
neighbors who were glad to help the newcomers build a 
more comfortable dwelling. When they gathered for a 
''raising," the women and children came also and brought 
an abundance of provisions, so that they might have 
a feast and a jolly time at the end of the day. 

The assembled company of men was divided into 
groups, each for a particular part of the work. One 
party cut down the trees, another cut them into proper 
lengths, another spHt rough boards, while others raised 
the walls of the log cabin. First, two logs, perhaps 
twenty-four or thirty feet long, were laid on the level 
ground parallel to each other, and about twenty feet 
apart. Near both ends of the logs notches were cut. 
Next, two shorter logs had their under sides notched, and 
were laid across the first two, forming the ends. Then 
other logs were laid upon the first, being notched so that 
they fitted quite closely to them. So the walls would 
rise until they were six or seven feet high, when the end 
logs would be made shorter in each tier, until the side logs 
came together in a ridge at the top. The roof was now 
covered with short boards, several inches in width, that 
had been split from straight-grained trunks. Over these 
rude shingles poles were fastened by pegs, to hold them 
down; these were called weight poles. 

The door and windows were then cut out of the sides of 
the cabin. A rough plank door was hung on leather 
hinges. It had a wooden latch on the inside which could 
be lifted by a string that passed outside through a hole. 
When the latchstring was drawn in, the door could not 
be opened from the outside; hence the familiar expres- 



no AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

sion of western hospitality : '' Our latchstring always hangs 
out for you." 

Next, the chimney was built. An opening was cut in 
the back wall of the cabin, several feet wide and three or 
four feet high. Here small logs were built up outside the 
cabin to the height of the fire-place; above this the chim- 
ney was gradually made narrower. It was usually lined 
on the inside with stones, laid in mud mortar, and 
above these the sticks that formed the upper part of 
the chimney were thickly plastered with mud, both 
inside and outside. The broad hearth was either 
stone or hardened clay. The chinks in the cabin walls 
were filled first by strips of wood driven in between the 
logs where there were gaps, and then by being plastered 
with clay. Later, perhaps, the settler could afford to 
fasten clapboards by means of pegs on the inside walls of 
his cabin. 

The ground might serve for a floor, but in the better 
cabins small logs were smoothed on one or both sides and 
laid close together to form a 
"puncheon" floor. For ceiling, 
saplings were run across from 
one wall to the other, and upon 
these clapboards were laid, over- 
lapping each other. A series of _ ^ . ^ 

^^ ^ . . The Bed in a Log Cabin 

pegs driven into the side wall 

was the ladder by which boys climbed to the loft at night. 

The family bed was made by driving a post into the 

ground near one corner of the cabin. From holes in this, 

poles were extended to the wafls in both directions; 

across them was laid a platform of boards upon which 

a mattress of corn husks or a feather bed was laid. 








PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST iii 

If the company of house-raisers was large enough, such 
a cabin could be finished in a day; five or six men could 
accomplish the work in a few days. The settlers were 
glad to help one another and even made their contribu- 
tions of food, poultry, calves, 
and pigs to help their new 
neighbors get a start. 

Since the settler could 

bring little food with him, 

it was necessary to raise a 

crop as soon as possible. '''1%^^^y/f(/ji|\(i\^\^ 

The Indian method of kill- , ^ 

. A Pioneer Home in Kentucky 

mg trees and plantmg a 

crop of corn was the custom followed in the West. 
Sometimes the dead trees caught fire and burned for 
days. Then there was great danger that the dead grass 
might carry the fire to the fences, stacks, and buildings. 
When the settler wished to rid his field of trees entirely, 
he invited his neighbors to a ''log-roUing." With horses 
and oxen the logs and brush were rolled into huge piles 
and then burned. The ashes resulting from such fires 
were quite valuable. They were leached, and the lye 
was boiled down until nothing but a gray sediment 
remained. This was "potash" or "pearl ash" and was 
shipped east for the manufacture of soap. 

It may be asked, how did the settler get his land? In 
many cases he simply took it, there being no one to hin- 
der. Blazing marks upon a few trees about the tract 
he desired gave him a "tomahawk claim." Planting a 
Kttle field of corn also gave him a claim to the land. 
However, the settler might easily get a grant before he 
started West. If he had been a Revolutionary soldier, he 



112 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 




Blazed Boundary through 
Woods 



was entitled to a bounty in the form of land; or, he might 
buy the land warrants of former soldiers. Speculators 
bought much land in this way and then sold it to settlers; 
but often they sold what did not belong to them. The 

state of Virginia was very 
liberal with its lands in what 
is now Kentucky, which was 
until 1 791 a part of Virginia. 
Each settler there was en- 
titled to four hundred acres 
for the very small fee of ten 
dollars. Later, if he wished, 
one thousand acres would be 
added to this amount upon payment of $40 for each one 
hundred acres. Since the boundaries of the lands thus 
granted in Kentucky were not described, many disputes 
arose, some of them leading to bloodshed. 

Histories of the United States tell about the claims 
made by some of the States upon land west of the moun- 
tains, and how, after the Revolution, they ceded this to 
the general government. The latter began at once dis- 
posing of its great domain at very reasonable prices. A 
great land company known as the Ohio Company of 
Associates bought 1,500,000 acres in 1787 for eight or 
nine cents an acre. Upon this tract a body of settlers 
established Marietta, the first American town north of 
the Ohio River. 

According to the land law passed by Congress in 1785, 
a person could buy a tract of not less than 640 acres at 
one dollar an acre. Since few could afford to buy such 
large tracts, the law was changed in 1800 so that one might 
purchase 320 acres or more at two dollars an acre. Under 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 



113 



this law the purchaser need pay only one-fourth of the 
cost in cash and the rest in three annual payments. 
B Because they could 

get land on credit, 
many farmers bought 
more than they could 
pay for, so they 
mortgaged their 
farms, or else let the 
land go back to the 
government. By 
another law (1820), 
made to favor the 
poor man, any person 
was allowed to buy 

I. X is township 3 north in range 3 west . , . 

Y " "4 " " " 4 east eighty or more acres 

w" " r"*" ••■3 west. at $1.25 per acre. 











4 






Y 




X 




2: 

•< 


3 














Q 

q: 
III 


2 












BAS 


E 


1 
LI 


NE 






4 


3 


2 




1 
1 


2 


3 


4 











2 


Z 












Q. 


3 










W 






4 









6 


5 


4 


3 


2 


1 


7 


a 
8 


9 


10 


II 


12 


18 


17 


16 


15 


14 


13 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


30 ^ 


29 


28 


27 


26 


25 


31 


32 


33 


34 


35 


36 



ni. A Township Showing Sections. (36 
square miles.) Suppose this to be township 
X in diagram I. Then the section named a is 
section 8 of township 3 north in rafage 3 west. 



40 N E K 
acres N W M 


N'A NEM 


80 acres 




SEK 
NE'4 
■V) acres 


IGO acres 
SWM 


160 acres 



IV. A Section (640 acres) 
Suppose this to be section a of 

diagram III. 
Then the 160 acres in the lower 
right-hand corner is the southeast 
J of section 8 of township 3 north 
in range 3 west. The 40 acres 
marked NE i NW I is the north- 
east T of the northwest \ of sec- 
tion 8 of township 3 north in 
range 3 west. 



114 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

This must be paid in cash. It may be seen, then, that 
very few persons were kept from starting the hfe of a 
Western farmer because of the high cost of land. In- 
deed, if he was industrious, the settler's crops would 
pay for his land in two or three years. 

In order to make the location of land easy, and to pre- 
vent disputes over farm boundaries, the government put 
into operation its system of rectangular survey that is 
still in use throughout the West.^ Land offices were 
opened at different points in the West and at these, by 
examining the maps, the land that a man desired could 
be located and purchased. 

The early settlers in this part of the West found the 
land covered with forest. Beneath the trees was a rich, 
black loam. No richer soil could be desired. Good 
crops of corn, hemp, flax, and tobacco were grown, and 
also crops of cotton and indigo. The yield of corn was 
often as much as sixty bushels, of oats fifty bushels, and 
of barley forty bushels per acre. Every farmer had his 
orchard, large or small. Peach and pear trees grew rap- 
idly, and the dried fruit furnished a part of the settler's 
winter food. 

The plow of the Western farmer of this period was that 
of the wooden moldboard and iron share. He used a 
triangular harrow, instead of an oblong one, since it was 
less liable to catch on the stumps with which his fields 
abounded. His wheat was threshed with a flail, at the 
rate of from eight to sixteen bushels a day; on many 
farms there was an out-door threshing floor of hard 

^ For description of this system, illustrated by diagrams, see Dunn's 
The Community and the Citizen, pp. 49-51, James and Sanford, Our 
Government, pp. 1 71-173. Government in State and Nation, pp. 280-282. 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 



115 




Fanning away Chaff 



earth. This was shaped Hke a very small running track, 

the inside circle being fifteen feet or so in diameter, and 

around this track oxen or horses were driven. After the 

grain was tramped out in 

this way, the straw was 

removed ; then the grain 

was winnowed. On a 

windy day, tossing it in 

the air would cause the 

chaff to be blown away. 

Frequently, while one 

man sifted it through a sieve, two others waved a sheet 

in such a way as to make a breeze that carried off the 

chaff. 

The corn, after being husked, was shelled by hand on 
winter evenings by being rubbed upon the edge of a 
shovel that was placed across a tub. It was then 
pounded in a mortar — the hollowed-out end of a stump. 
The pestle might be worked by hand entirely, or it 
might be suspended from the end of a long pole that 
pulled it up after each downward stroke. In case the 

corn was still 
soft, it was 
grated upon a 
piece of tin 
through which 
holes had been 
punched by a 
nail. It was 
often ground in 
a hand-mill 
consisting of 




Grinding Corn on the Frontier 



Ii6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

two stones, the upper one having a handle by means 
of which it was turned upon the lower stone. 

Usually each farm had its cider mill, to which the 
apples were brought in the fall. There was also the 
cheese-press over which a log was laid with a weight 
upon one end. 

In the first years of the new Western farm, wild game 
supplied much food for the family. There was more 
venison and bear's meat than beef or pork. Wild tur- 
keys were more abundant than chickens, and in the 
spring and fall pigeons flew in flocks that darkened the 
sky. When such flocks alighted they sometimes broke 
the branches of the trees by their weight. In the forests 
where they nested, the farmers sometimes beat their nests 
to the ground with long poles and then turned in the 
swine to feed upon the eggs and young pigeons. At 
other times they fastened a decoy pigeon to a long pole 
that was arranged in a slanting position; when large 
numbers had alighted upon the pole, a hunter, standing 
at one end could slaughter all at one discharge of his 
gun. Such merciless and wasteful practices have resulted 
in the extinction of the wild pigeon. 

Many settlers brought a cow or a few pigs and chickens. 
These increased rapidly from the beginning. The pigs 
ran in the forest and fed well upon acorns. The farmer 
kept his ownership in them by branding them or marking 
their ears and by occasionally throwing out some corn 
for which they would come back. The cattle found the 
richest meadows of grass and cane. They also ran loose 
and were branded. If the milch cows were fed they would 
bring back the herd at night. Often they were given 
salt at a certain place, to which they would return regu- 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 117 

larly. At first no hay was cut for winter feed. It 
then became necessary in the early spring to drive 
the cattle to the woods, where trees were felled in 
order that they might browse upon the buds and 
tender shoots. Slippery elm, white elm, and the pig- 
nut, or white hickory, gave the best feed of this sort. 
It was not easy to keep sheep, on account of the wolves 
and panthers. 

So abundant were the crops in these early years that 
the pioneer farmer could make a hving for his family by 
working one-half the time. Indeed, he spent a large 
portion of his time upon such work as clearing fields, 
building fences, and erecting buildings. What should he 
do with the surplus of grain, tobacco, and live-stock? 
The way back to the markets of the cities in the East 
was long and difficult and there were no good roads; so 
there was scarcely a product of the West that could be 
taken overland and sold at a profit in the East. Much 
of the corn was therefore made into whisky, or fed to 
pigs and cattle which were driven to markets across the 
mountains. 

The easiest way out of the West was down the Ohio 
River to the Mississippi and thence to New Orleans. 
Here lived many French and Spanish people, and here 
came the ships that carried freight to the West Indies 
and to the Atlantic coast cities. So the western farmers 
made salt beef, bacon, and hams, and loaded these, to- 
gether with corn, tobacco, and skins, upon huge flat- 
boats. (It will be remembered that in 1828 Abraham 
Lincoln made such a trip with a flatboat to New Orleans.) 
Arrived at New Orleans, the boats could be broken up 
and sold for lumber. A horse could be bought with a 



Ii8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

part of the proceeds and the journey home thus be made 
overland to Ohio or Kentucky. 

Traders soon found it a profitable business to collect 
these products and carry them to the Southern markets. 
They used long keel boats in which they could pole a 
cargo back against the current of the Mississippi. This 
is one way in which the Westerners got supplies of goods 




Scene on the Ohio River 
The main highway of the early West. 

that they could not raise or make. One of the most 
difficult things for the farmer to get was salt; it was 
sometimes sold for several dollars a bushel. Salt was 
brought from New York State or made at the salt springs 
in Kentucky, where the water was evaporated in huge 
tanks. 

The Western settlers had little money to use in trade; 
instead, articles such as corn, whisky, and skins passed 
as money. Frequently, silver dollars were cut into halves 
and quarters for use as change. 

The price of labor was so high that few farmers could 
afford to hire field hands; at the same time those who 
worked for wages could earn enough in a few years to 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 



119 



start farming for themselves. In Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee slavery went along with the settlers, though at 
first slaves were few in number. North of the Ohio River 
slavery was prohibited by the Ordinance of 1787; hence 
most of those who settled there, 
even those from the South, were 
opposed to it. Efforts were made 
by those who favored the system to 
have slavery made legal in Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois, but they were 
unsuccessful. 

Life on a frontier farm in the 
Ohio River valley had plenty of 
hard labor and homely pleasures. 
Without any of the improved farm 
machinery of our times, the work 
required mainly strength and pa- 
tience. The long winter evenings 

were full of employment for busy fingers. Clothing was 
made at first from deer skins and buffalo wool; later 
from flax, hemp, and cotton raised on the farm. 
Sometimes, before the crops were plentiful, the fiber of 
the wild nettle was used. Linsey-woolsey, a mixture of 
hnen and cotton, was the favorite cloth. It was spun 
and woven at home; the loom generally stood under the 
porch roof or in a lean-to at the rear of the house. For 
dyeing, the bark of the hickory or the butternut made 
good coloring matter. 

Cooking was done in the big fireplace, where pots and 
kettles hung on the cranes. "Johnnycake" was baked 
on a board in front of the fire. The Dutch oven was 
common — a three-legged iron pot with a flat bottom, 




COONSKIN 



I20 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

around which hot coals and ashes were piled. Often 
there were bake-ovens built outside the house. If brick 
were not to be had for this purpose, stones and baked 
clay were used. In such an oven a fire was built and 
afterward scraped out. The loaves were then put into 
the hot oven. Kitchen and table utensils were mainly 
of wood and pewter. 

When farms were scattered, life became lonely and 
monotonous; the people therefore took advantage of 
every possible occasion to have social gatherings. House- 
raisings and log-rollings gave opportunity for such meet- 
ings. The women met in sewing and quilting bees and 
apple-parings; the men came for the evening meal and 
remained for the country dance. The husking-bee was 
the most exciting of these events. The long pile of corn 
was divided equally between two leaders who first "chose 
sides" for the contest. Then the men fell to the work 
with a will, each side determined to finish its portion 
first. Sometimes the rivalry ran into rough play and 
even fighting; but the spirit of good nature prevailed 
at the supper that had been prepared in the meantime 
by the women. 

To these "frolics" were added, in later years, the 
spelling matches and singing schools, attended by both 
old and young. The coming of the backwoods "circuit 
rider" to hold a religious service in some log cabin or 
in the schoolhouse was an event of importance. The 
summer "camp meetings" were attended by hundreds of 
families, and here a chance was given for those who had 
forgotten the ways of civilized life in the midst of the 
rough frontier conditions to be "converted" and to 
return to better ways. The preaching, singing, and 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 121 

praying were all done by main strength, both of voice 
and of muscle. 

The frontier farmer boy had no lack of occupation. 
He spHt the kindling and the wood for the fireplace and 
gathered the chips used for lighting the cabin when 
tallow dips were scarce. He fed and drove the cows, 
but let his sister do the milking. He took part in the work 
of washing and shearing the sheep. He helped in churn- 
ing and soap-making, and ran the melted tallow into the 
tin candle-molds. He looked forward to butchering-day 
as to a celebration. In the fall he chopped the sausage 
meat and the various ingredients of mince pies. On 
stormy days and winter evenings he might help his 
mother clean and card the wool, wind the yarn, and 
hetchel flax. Later she might call upon him for help in 
dyeing the homespun and bleaching the linen. 

The boy was useful to his father when he searched the 
woods for good trees from which special articles were 
to be made, such as ax-helves and ox-yokes. From 
hickory saplings he could make splint brooms and cut 
out the splints used in making chair bottoms and baskets. 
He guarded the cornfields from squirrels and crows and 
set traps for wolves. He went on horseback to the grist 
mill, which was generally some miles away, and waited 
there for his turn to have his sack of corn ground into 
meal. Along with these duties were some pleasures, 
such as going nutting and berrying and hunting for grapes. 
Bee hunting gave its rich reward in the hollow trunk full 
of honey. ''Sugaring off" time in the spring was a 
special time of delight, though it brought its tasks in 
the making of wooden spouts, the carrying of buckets 
of sap and water, and the tending of fires. 



122 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

There were disagreeable features of life on the frontier. 
Everywhere people suffered much from fever and ague, 
and mosquitoes were a terrible pest. Distance from the 
doctor resulted in much suffering, but many plants of 
forest and field were used for making homely remedies. 

The Western farmers were not all of one sort. Some 
were satisfied to remain half hunters, raising only a few 
acres of corn and vegetables and depending as much 
upon gun and trap for food and clothing. Such were 
apt to be restless and shiftless, who sold their ''claims" 
upon the approach of thrifty neighbors who could afford 
to buy. Loading their few belongings upon a pack-horse 
or into a covered wagon, they "struck for the tall timber" 
and a new claim. Many of these happy-go-lucky pioneer 
farmers ''settled" and moved several times in the course 
of a Hfetime. Meanwhile, they hved a mean and com- 
monplace existence, their children growing up dirty and 
ignorant, with no opportunity for a better life. 

The industrious and thrifty farmer cleared more of 
his farm each year, and built a better barn and house. 
He kept a few cattle and sold his products at the nearest 
town or to the traveling traders. He was glad to see the 
value of. his property increase as more farms were im- 
proved about him; then he, too, might sell his farm and 
go farther west where land was cheap. Or, he might 
become a capitalist farmer, like the one who stood ready 
to buy him out. This farmer had surplus money with 
which he could buy better implements and improved 
stock. He built good fences and drained his land. His 
children not only finished the country school but were 
later sent to college. If he was a large Southern farmer 
he had slaves, lived to a degree in luxury, and spent some 



PIONEER FARMERS OF THE WEST 123 

time each year in Washington or New York, or at some 
northern summer resort. 

There were, then, in the eastern half of the Mississippi 
Valley, a hundred years ago, several types of farmers; 
each class pushed the one ahead of it farther toward the 
West. Everywhere there was plenty to eat and wear — 
no heavy taxes, no grinding poverty. Every man was 
''as good as his neighbor"; hence, the West became the 
home of democracy. Every farmer might, if he would, 
become independent and thus start his children upon 
their way toward a higher plane of living and more 
cultivated surroundings.^ 

^ Good descriptions of pioneer life are found in James, Readings in 
American History, 168-176, 411-419. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE RISE OF COTTON 

Very little cotton was grown in any of the colonies 
before the Revolution. It was a common garden shrub 
in the South, and in some places a small amount of cloth 
was made from the fiber. When it is considered how 
important this crop became later, overshadowing every- 
thing else in the South, it seems strange that it was of 
such small consequence in colonial times. There are 
several reasons for this: first, tobacco, rice, and indigo 
were more profitable; second, the 
only kind of cotton known at that 
time was a "short staple" variety, 
i. e. the fibers were short and very 
difficult to separate from the seeds. 
It was not until 1786 that some seed 
of the sea-island or long staple cotton, 
which was native to the islands of 
the Caribbean sea, was brought from 

the Bahamas to a Mr. Levett, who 
Cotton , , . • i i rr 

owned a plantation on an island on 

the coast of Georgia. Mr. Levett carelessly threw the 
seeds upon a dunghill, where they sprouted. Out of 
curiosity he transplanted the young plants, and raised 
a small crop. Samples of this cotton were sent to Eng- 
land, where it proved to be especially good. The 
cultivation of sea-island cotton now spread along the 




THE RISE OF COTTON 125 

coast, especially as just at this time the planters were 
suffering from the loss of their indigo market. 

This variety of cotton could not be raised inland, but 
instead there came into use a third variety having short 
fibers and green seeds. With this upland cotton, as with 
the first kind mentioned, the fibers stuck fast to the seeds. 
This was the greatest obstacle to the profitable produc- 
tion of the crop. The sea-island variety could be cleaned 
by the use of a hand machine, known as a ''churka." 
This consisted of two parallel rollers placed close together 
and turned in opposite directions by a crank. As the 
cotton was run between the rollers, the seeds were pulled 
loose and left behind. But this machine was of little 
use for the short staple variety, so the greater part of 
that cotton was cleaned by hand at the rate of a pound 
or less a day. Slaves were often required to clean four 
pounds a week each, working evenings and at odd times. 

During the Revolution the prices of English goods 
were high and the people were anxious to manufacture 
their own cloth. This gave some encouragement to the 
raising of cotton. But the expense of cleaning it made 
cotton goods more costly than the woolen and linen goods 
in common use. 

In the year 1792 there was graduated from Yale College 
in Connecticut a young man named Eli Whitney, through 
whose efforts a complete change in this situation came 
about. Whitney had never lived in the South, nor had 
he ever seen cotton or cotton seed. He went down to 
Georgia with the intention of teaching school, and on 
the way became acquainted with Mrs. Greene, the widow 
of Nathaniel Greene, the great American commander in 
the South during the Revolution. Whitney's experi- 



126 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

ences upon this journey, and the events that followed, 
can best be told by quoting a letter written to his father 
the following year (1793). "I went from N. York with 
the family of the late Major General Greene to Georgia. 
I went immediately with the family to their plantation 
about twelve miles from Savannah, with an expectation 
of spending four or five days and then proceed into 
Carolina to take the school as I have mentioned in former 
letters. During this time I heard much said of the 
extreme difficulty of ginning cotton, that is, separating 
it from its seeds. There were a number of very respect- 
able Gentlemen at Mrs. Greene's, who all agreed that if a 
machine could be invented which would gin the cotton 
with expedition, it would be a great thing both to the 
Country and to the inventor. I involuntarily happened 
to be thinking on the subject and struck out a plan of 
a Machine in my mind, which I communicated to Miller 
(who is agent to the executors of Genl. Greene and 
resides in the family, a man of respectabihty and prop- 
erty). He was pleased with the plan and said if I would 
pursue it and try an experiment to see if it would answer, 
he would be at the whole expense, I should lose nothing 
by my time, and if I succeeded we would share the profits. 
... In about ten days I made a httle model, for which 
I was offered, if I would give up all right and title to it, 
a Hundred Guineas. I concluded to relinquish my school 
and turn my attention to perfecting the machine. I 
made one before I came away which required the labor 
of one man to turn it and with which one man will clean 
ten times as much cotton as he can in any other way 
before known, and also cleanse it much better than in 
the usual mode. 



THE RISE OF COTTON 



127 




"This machine may be turned by water or with a 
horse, with the greatest ease, and one man and a horse 
will do more than fifty men with the old machines. It 
makes the labor fifty times less without throwing any 
class of People out of business. 

"I returned Northward for the purpose of having a 
machine made on a large scale and obtaining a Patent 
for the invention. I went 
to Philadelphia soon after 
I arrived, made myself ac- 
quainted with the steps 
necessary to obtain a Pa- 
tent, took several of the 
steps and the Secretary of 
State Mr. Jefferson agreed 
to send the Patent to me as 
soon as it could be made 
out. ... It is generally 
said by those who know 
anything about it, that I 
shall make a Fortune by it. 
... I wish you, sir, not to 
show this letter nor to com- 
municate anything of its 
contents to any body except 
my Brothers and Sister, enjoining it on them to keep 
the whole a profound secret. . . . Only two or three 
of my friends know what I am about, tho' there are 
many surmises in town." ^ 

Such was the beginning of the cotton ''gin" — a short 
word for "engine." The idea was simply that of placing 

1 American Historical Review, iii, 99 flf. 




Cotton Gin 

The upper figure shows Whitney's in- 
vention. The lower figure shows 
a later form. 



128 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

teeth in rows upon a cylinder so that they projected 
through the spaces between strips of metal. The cotton, 
being placed over this metal grating, was drawn through 
by the teeth as the cylinder revolved, while the seeds 
were left behind. Whitney's first idea was to use circular 
pieces of sheet iron upon whose edges he could make saw 
teeth. A number of these pieces were set into a cylinder, 
side by side, with short spaces between. But he had 
difficulty in obtaining sheet iron for this purpose. One 
of the daughters of Mrs. Greene had purchased some 
iron wire with which she intended to make a bird cage. 
Says Whitney in another letter, "Seeing this wire hanging 
in the parlor it struck me that I could make teeth with 
that." Later, it was found a better plan to use iron saw 
teeth for this purpose. 

There was yet another difiiculty. After the cotton 
fibers had been pulled through the grating they stuck to 
the cylinder and clogged the machine. Mrs. Greene 
saw Whitney's efforts to solve this difficulty, and picking 
up a brush used for sweeping the hearth, said, ''Why 
don't you use this?" Whitney then placed another 
cylinder in his machine carrying a series of small brushes. 
These revolved in contact with the first cylinder and 
freed the teeth of lint. 

This was in 1793, and the machine was patented the 
next year. Before the patent was issued, however, so 
eager were the people for the invention that they broke 
into Whitney's shop and carried off his machine. The 
idea spread rapidly and soon other makers were getting 
patents upon improvements. Within two years Whitney 
and his partner, Miller, had set up thirty gins in South 
Carolina and Georgia, operated by either water, horse, 



THE RISE OF COTTON 



129 



or ox power. It was not their plan to sell the machines, 
but to receive pay from the farmers for ginning cotton. 
Whitney was obliged to bring suits against other persons 
who were making gins, and he spent in this way all that 
he earned. South CaroHna paid the partners $50,000, 
and $12,000 was received from North Carolina. This 
money also went for legal expenses in defending the 
patent. 

We may better understand the effect of this invention 
upon cotton production when we remember that a negro, 
using the earHest form of hand-power gin, could clean 
fifty pounds a day instead of one. Operated by power, 
it became capable of cleaning a thousand pounds each 
day. Here, then, was the means of placing upon the 
market cotton, ready for manufacture, in much greater 
quantities than ever before. It is small wonder that 
the southern farmers at once began its cultivation. 

But this machine would not have caused the great 
increase in cotton production that it did, had there not 
come at the same time other changes, quite as great, 
in the methods of cotton manufacture. Beginning about 
1765, a number of inventions had been made in England 
that greatly increased the amount of cotton that could 
be spun and woven into cloth. These were the spinning 
and weaving machines, to which men were just learning 
to apply the power of that other great invention — the 
steam-engine. The factories that contained this im- 
proved machinery created a great demand and made a 
market for all the cotton that the South could produce. 
This fact is illustrated by the increase in the export of 
cotton from the United States, from six million pounds 
in 1795 to more than sixty million in 1807. With greater 



I30 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

crops of cotton and much cheaper cotton cloth, the 
world could afford to buy more cotton goods than ever 
before. Thus it was that cotton cloth became the cheap 
and common article for ordinary wear and household use 
that we know it to be. 

In the cultivation of cotton, ridges about four feet 
apart were thrown up by plowing, and in these the seed 
was planted. When the young plants were five or six 
inches high, they were thinned out by the use of the hoe 
until they stood twelve or fourteen inches apart. The 
rows needed constant hoeing, and the work of plowing, 
cultivating, and picking lasted from March to December. 
With their cotton, as with their other crops, the Southern 
farmers followed the system of using fresh land as soon 
as the old fields gave out. Under this wasteful system 
there was no fertilization, for few cattle were kept, and 
the cotton seeds were thrown away, instead of being 
used in the production of oil and fertilizer as at present. 

In 1795 raw cotton was worth 35 cents a pound; it 
is not strange that the production increased from 8,000,- 
000 pounds in that year to 35,000,000 in 1800. Five 
years later the South was producing twice as much as in 
1800, and in 1807 the amount was 80,000,000 pounds. 
Meanwhile, the price had fallen to 21 cents a pound. 
By 1820 the product had again doubled and was 160,000,- 
000 pounds. Now this could mean but one thing — the 
spread of cotton culture westward upon fresh lands. 
The map (page 132) will show where this occurred. 

In Chapter VII it was stated that men who came 
chiefly from the North began to settle in the upland 
region of the South in the later colonial period. This 
movement continued after the Revolutionary War. 



THE RISE OF COTTON 



131 



They were small farmers, raising a variety of crops, and 
herding cattle on the plains. After the invention of the 
cotton gin made the raising of cotton profitable, both 
these upland farmers and the large planters of the coast 
region devoted much more land to this crop. The latter 
class, having many slaves, could produce cotton cheaper 
than could the small farmers, who had only a few slaves 
or, in most cases, none at all. The result was that, as 
the fields of the planters became exhausted, they could 
afford to buy the land of the small farmers, and the 
latter moved on, taking poorer lands, or moving nearer 
the mountains, or farther west. Some went into the 
mountain valleys and became the ancestors of the ''moun- 
tain whites" of to-day; others settled in Kentucky or 
moved still farther into Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. 

The large planters did not occupy all of the upland 
region of the South, for here there remained permanently 
a large class of small farmers who raised other crops with 
their cotton. But there was not enough of the rich 
cotton-producing soil east of the mountains to supply 
the demand, so there began a great movement westward 
to the fertile regions of Alabama and Mississippi, where 
land was, bought at prices ranging from fifty cents to 
three dollars an acre. Here is a description of how the 
people moved into this region, written by the great 
naturahst, Audubon, who travelled extensively in the 
West and South. 

"1 think I see them harnessing their horses, and attach- 
ing them to their wagons, which are already fitted with 
bedding, provisions, and the younger children; while on 
their outside are fastened spinning-wheels and looms; a 
bucket filled with tar and tallow swings betwixt the hind 



132 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

wheels. Several axes are secured to the bolster, and the 
feeding-trough of the horses contains pots, kettles, and 
pans. The servant now becomes a driver, riding the 
near saddled horse, the wife is mounted on another, the 
worthy husband shoulders his gun, and his sons, clad in 
plain, substantial homespun, drive the cattle ahead, 
and lead the procession, followed by the hounds and 




Population in the 

West and South 

in 1820 



Notice how Southern farmers are settling in the river valleys. 



other dogs. Their day's journey is short and not agree- 
able. The cattle, stubborn or wild, frequently leave the 
road for the woods, giving the travelers much trouble; 
the harness of the horses here and there gives way, and 
immediate repair is needed. A basket which has been 
accidentally dropped must be gone after, for nothing 
that they have can be spared. The roads are bad, and 
now and then all hands are called to push on the wagon, 



THE RISE OF COTTON 133 

or prevent it from upsetting. Yet by sunset they have 
proceeded perhaps twenty miles. Fatigued, all assemble 
round the fire, which has been lighted; supper is prepared, 
and a camp being run up, there they pass the night. 
Days and weeks pass before they gain the end of their 
journey." 

Arrived at their destination, the famiHar process of 
clearing the land began. Each winter new fields were 
cleared, or the fields of small farmers were bought, and 
thus the best land was taken up. 

Though, as we have seen, cotton had nothing what- 
ever to do with the introduction of slavery in America, 
there is a very close connection between the growth of 
the cotton industry and that of the slave system. As 
the best lands on the tobacco plantations of the tidewater 
region became exhausted, slave labor became less profit- 
able; then the owners of slaves realized that their labor 
was not worth what it cost. Considering the first cost 
of slaves, their wasteful methods of work, and the expense 
of their support, the planter would in many cases have 
been better off had he hired his work done by free 
labor. But here were the difficulties: first, there was 
great scarcity of free labor in the South; and, second, 
the negroes were there: would it be safe to free them? 
Nevertheless, many planters, among them Washington, 
Jefferson, and Randolph, did free their slaves. 

The introduction of cotton in Southern agriculture 
changed all this. Slaves became more profitable, es- 
pecially as the cotton plantations were pushed back inta 
the upland region and on farther to the west. It was 
found that slave labor could be used in raising this crop 
as in the case of tobacco, rice, and indigo. There were 



134 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

several reasons for this. The work required in the 
cotton fields was very simple: plowing, planting, hoeing, 
and picking do not require great intelligence. In addi- 
tion, women and children could be employed in some of 
this work. Few implements were needed, and these 
might be very crude and simple. The work lasted for 
nine months of the year. Moreover, the slaves could be 
readily managed on a cotton plantation: they could 
work in gangs and hence be easily overseen. 

The profitableness of cotton and the opportunity of 
extending this crop to the West fixed slavery upon the 
South. Congress forbade the further importation of 
slaves after 1807; but the temptation to smuggle them 
from Africa was great, and thousands were brought in. 

By the year 1820, Southerners had moved with their 
slaves across the Mississippi River into Louisiana, and 
farther north they were migrating up the Missouri River 
and occupying its fertile lowlands. Hence it was that 
the question of the admission of Missouri as a slave state 
came before Congress. According to the decision that 
was made by the Compromise of that year, Missouri was 
to be a slave state, but north of its southern boundary 
(36° 30') slaves were not to be held in the Louisiana 
Purchase. 

Very soon after this, American settlers began going 
into the Mexican territory known as Texas, where they 
were given grants of land by the Mexican government. 
In the course of years they became very numerous there, 
and in 1836 they were strong enough to rebel against 
Mexico and become independent. Then arose the 
question of annexing Texas to the United States. Objec- 
tion was made to this because in Texas slavery was legal, 



THE RISE OF COTTON 135 

and since cotton raising was the principal industry there, 
the people would insist upon keeping their slaves after 
annexation. The question was decided in the election 
of 1844, 2.nd the next year Texas became a state in the 
Union. This in turn brought on the Mexican War, 
because of a boundary dispute. Another reason why the 
United States government was willing to have war was 
that a victory over Mexico would mean the annexation 
of the vast region farther west and extending to the 
Pacific Ocean. Here, it was thought by some, was a 
great area where cotton growing would be profitable and 
where the planters could find plenty of fresh land when 
their fields were exhausted. In this idea, however, they 
soon discovered that they were mistaken. 

These events are mentioned here to show that behind 
all this political history are the facts of our agricultural 
history. It was chiefly the latter that determined the 
poHcies of Presidents and Congresses. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE STORY OF THE PLOW 

Probably the most important factor in the improve- 
ment of agriculture during our history was the invention 
of the iron plow. This implement came into general use 
about 1825, and its story is one of absorbing interest. 

The wooden moldboard of the colonial plow was covered 
more or less completely with strips or old scraps of sheet 
iron, a horseshoe, or the discarded blade of a hoe. Often 
the farmer in making his moldboard selected a section 
from a tree trunk in which the grain was winding. This 
he hewed into a curved shape as best he could. The 
landside was also of wood, but it was shod with iron. 
The share was of iron, sometimes with a hardened steel 
point. The colter was of iron, edged with steel. The 
wooden beam was usually straight, and the handles, 
rising nearly perpendicular to it, were made from the 
crooked roots of the white ash. 

One will readily see that deep plowing and good 
control of this plow were impossible. But we must 
realize that the colonial farmer cultivated much land 
that was newly cleared. The soil was easily worked 
and the fields were for the most part small. 

About the year 1790, Charles Newbold of New Jersey 
began to work out the idea of a cast-iron plow. He 
succeeded in making one, which was patented in 1797. 




THE STORY OF THE PLOW 137 

All the parts, except the beam and handles, were cast in 
one soHd piece. This plow was ridiculed by the farmers 
of that time. They declared that it was not practical 
and even persuaded themselves that it was worse than 
useless, because the iron 
certainly poisoned the soil! 
They said it made the weeds 
flourish, while good seed 
would not sprout in the fur- 
rows turned by it. Newbold Charles Newbold's Plow 

was persistent and spent The first cast-iron plow to be pat- 
^ , . , ,, , en ted in the United States. 

$30,000, which was all he 

had, to introduce his invention, but without success. 
Meanwhile the problem of the proper shape of the 
moldboard of a plow was being studied in a most careful 
manner by a Virginia planter — Thomas Jefferson. 
This man is most often thought of as a patriot and a 
statesman; he was also a student, a scientist, and a 
philosopher. Moreover, he took great interest in agricul- 
ture. During his travels in France and Italy after the 
Revolution, he said, "In architecture, painting, and 
sculpture I found much amusement, but more than all in 
their agriculture, many objects of which might be adopted 
by us to great advantage." In France he often watched 
the peasants plowing and commented, "Oxen plow here 
with collars and harness. The awkward figure of their 
mould-boards leads me to consider what should be its 
form." On his return from Europe, Jefferson found that 
his estate at Monticello had suffered greatly from mis- 
management. He said, "A ten years' abandonment of 
my lands to the unprincipled ravages of overseers has 
brought on a degree of degradation far beyond what I 



138 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

expected." He found that ''time, patience, and per- 
severance" were required in agriculture, as in politics. 

Jefferson's chief interest in the plow lay in the problem 
of so shaping the moldboard that it would do its work 
most effectively and at the same time offer the least 
resistance. What shape would turn over and pulverize 
the soil most thoroughly and at the same time make the 
plow most easy to draw? To this problem Jefferson 
applied his mathematical principles in a long essay upon 
the subject. It was his idea that, if the proper shape 
could be found, all plows might be made exactly alike 
and not each one by guesswork. This, he said, was the 
root of all progress and would begin a new era in agri- 
culture. Jefferson did not seem to realize that different 
soils demand different shapes and styles of plows. While 
his efforts did not have any immediate practical effect, 
his study of the question directed attention to the fact 
that such improvements in agriculture were both pos- 
sible and necessary. 

The man who first made the iron plow a practical 
implement was a Quaker named Jethro Wood, whose 

home was in New York State. 
Once when he was a boy he 
melted a pewter cup and molded 
from the metal a tiny plow. 

„, , " He hitched a cat to this — and 

Jethro Wood s Plow, 1819 

got a whipping for his fun. He 
was constantly whittHng the shapes of moldboards out 
of wood or potatoes, and later he corresponded with 
Jefferson upon the subject. 

Wood's first patent was obtained in 1814. His im- 
proved plow was patented in 1819, and had parts that 




THE STORY OF THE PLOW 139 

could be replaced if broken. These were fastened to- 
gether without screws or bolts, by having interlocking 
parts that could be wedged together. Wood helped the 
blacksmith in making his patterns. He sent one of his 
plows as a present to Alexander I, Czar of Russia. Accom- 
panying it was a letter which Wood had a friend translate 
into French. The Czar sent Wood a diamond ring. 
This came first into the hands of Wood's friend, and 
never reached Wood himself. 

No sooner had the iron plow been put upon the market 
than many inventors and manufacturers began to copy 
it and its use became widespread within a few years. 
Wood brought suits against these people, but died before 
his rights were secured. His son continued the fight 
in the courts, and later his four daughters. The loss of 
Wood's entire fortune was the result. It is said that the 
entire amount received by his heirs from his invention 
was S500. 

But the country received the benefit of the iron plow 
from which Wood and his family got nothing but sorrow 
and loss. Without it, our agriculture, and indeed our 
entire history, would be very different. 

That the iron plow was not immediately used every- 
where is shown by the story of Daniel Webster's plow. 
Webster, one of our greatest lawyers and statesmen, was 
also an enthusiastic farmer. He was especially fond of 
big; sleek oxen, and took great pains in raising them. 
He carefully matched the oxen in pairs for the plow. His 
farm was located near Marshfield, Massachusetts, upon 
a beautiful site overlooking the sea. 

Webster was anxious to improve the methods of plow- 
ing of his time, the common depth of the furrow being 



I40 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



not more than four or five inches. He had one field 
from which a growth of scrub oak had been cut; but the 
stumps and roots were still thick there and too tough 

for any plow to remove. 
So, in 1836-7, Webster 
made a plow for this 
especial purpose. He 
carefully selected a tough 
white oak trunk, from 
which he made a beam 
twelve feet long. Then 
he had a wheelwright 




Daniel Webster's Plow 
Showing both land side and furrow side. 



make a wooden moldboard under his direction, occasion- 
ally lending a hand himself in the work. He had a 
blacksmith cover it with straps of iron and make an iron 
share and colter. This immense plow cut a furrow twelve 
inches deep. Says a writer: "I have seen the great man 
holding the plow, assisted by some six or eight farmers, 
with strong arms, while it was propelled by six pairs 
of oxen, tearing up roots and everything else that stood 
in its way." Webster himself testifies: "When I have 
hold of the handles of my big plow in such a field as this, 
with four yokes of oxen to pull it through, and hear the 
roots crack, and see the stumps all go under the furrow, 
out of sight, to observe the clean, mellowed surface of the 
plowed land, I feel more enthusiasm over my achievement 
than over my encounters in pubhc life at Washington." 

We have seen that the soil of the newly cleared wooded 
land was loose and easy to work, but when the Western 
pioneers settled upon the tough sod of the prairies they 
found that even the best iron plows were not equal to 
the task of subduing it. In places the roots of grasses 



THE STORY OF THE PLOW 141 

had grown for centuries undisturbed, matted close for 
several inches in depth. Elsewhere, the young oaks 
that sprouted each year were burned off above ground 
by the prairie fires; but the roots continued to grow for 
years beneath the sod, spreading far and becoming very 
hard. Out of this necessity the prairie-breaking plow 
was invented. It had a moldboard with a long, easy 
curve that turned the tough sod more readily than did 
the old-fashioned plow. In some cases iron rods took 
the place of a part of the long moldboard. 

Other difficulties arose besides those with sod and 
roots. Much of the prairie soil was a sticky loam, diffi- 
cult for even the most modern implements. In the 
forest region the soil became more compact and harder 
to plow as it was cultivated year after year. For such 
soil it was necessary to find a moldboard that could be 
polished so smooth that it would scour. 

To accomplish this result John Lane, about the year 
1833, made the first steel moldboard. His Httle shop 
stood on the shore of Lake Michigan, where the city of 
Chicago was then making its beginning. The moldboard 
was made by using three pieces of an old cross-cut saw 
and fastening them to an iron frame. A few years later 
John Deere made similar moldboards and then sent 
abroad for steel from which to manufacture them in his 
factory. 

There were two defects in all the early iron and steel 
plows. The moldboards were rough on account of the 
''blow-holes" left on the surface when the metal was cast; 
and they were also brittle. James OHver, of South 
Bend, Indiana, worked for many years trying to over- 
come these defects. He spent all of his money and lost 



142 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

most of his friends. He saw that when the molten metal 
was cast into the mold, gases collected on the surface 
of the newly cast moldboard, thus causing blow-holes. 
To prevent this he made grooves along the inside surface 
of the mold and so allowed the gases to escape. To 
render the moldboard less brittle, Oliver invented a method 
of annealing that toughened the metal. These improve- 
ments resulted, about the year 1869, in the chilled steel 
moldboard. Another step in the right direction was 
taken when, about the same time, John Lane, the son of 
the man previously mentioned, invented the ''soft center" 
steel moldboard. Only the surfaces of this moldboard 
are steel, the center being soft iron. The iron renders 
the metal lighter than it would be if made of solid steel, 
and it is also less brittle. 

While these inventions were being worked out, other 
men were experimenting with sulky and steam plows. 
Very important, also, in prairie agriculture was the gang 
plow, first drawn by horses and later by the traction 
engine. 

These improvements in plows would not have been so 
valuable if the rest of the process of cultivating fields 
had not also been improved; for men could not work 
over their plowed fields with hoes and rakes; there had 
to be better harrows and cultivators. The earhest kind 
of harrow used was simply the branch of a tree dragged 
over the field. The teeth of colonial harrows were of 
wood, but later iron and steel came into use. Then 
they were given a backward slant, and about 1870 there 
was invented the lever for changing the pitch of the 
teeth. At the same time the spring-tooth harrow was 
patented. 



THE STORY OF THE PLOW 143 

The Englishman, Jethro Tull, who spent his life urging 
the use of "horse-hoes" and seed-drills, has already been 
mentioned. He lived in the eighteenth century. These 
inventions received much time and effort at the hands 
of other men, but they did not come into common use 
in this country until the period just before the Civil War. 
Important as these implements are, their place is clearly 
second to that of the plow, which is at the basis of all 
successful farming. 



CHAPTER XIII 
, WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 

A REMARKABLE fact about the history of American 
agriculture, and that of other countries as well, is the 
lateness of the improvements in farm machinery. A 
hundred years ago men were using practically the same 
implements that had been common among the Greeks 
and Romans of ancient times. In fact, their farm ma- 
chinery was not far advanced over that of the ancient 
Egyptians who tilled the fertile valley of the Nile centuries 
before the time of Christ. The implements used in this 
country about the time of the War of 1812, for instance, 
were the wooden plow with iron point, the wooden-toothed 
harrow, the hoe and spade, the reaping sickle, and the 
flail. 

Indeed, as late as 1838 a report made to a New England 
agricultural society stated that ''A plough, a harrow, 
hoe and shovel, with a small sprinkling of forks and rakes, 
and a few nameless et ceteras, comprise the whole range 
of most of our tool sheds; and these, too, so ill constructed; 
requiring in most cases twice the power to use them that 
better contrived implements do; uselessly consuming 
time, talent, and temper; to say nothing of the wear 
and tear of conscience that such fretting is apt to induce." 

However, one improved implement besides the iron 
plow was found upon American farms before that time, 
namely, the grain cradle. This came into use about the 



WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 



145 



year 1800. Its virtue lay in the fact that by it the grain 
was laid in better position to be gathered up easily and 
quickly by the binders than was the case with the scythe. 




' " "'1','" 'ii;i MM ' y ,1 « ,r I I' I 1 ,, ,1 



111'' (II fj^-^^: -^;>/^- :9SMt 



'''^^^^^msmiii^ 




llfeli'ill'/"'" 



The Old Way of Reaping 



A great many inventors, both in Europe and America, 
worked upon the making of a machine for cutting grain 
before the modern reaper was invented. In some of 
the early machines the cutting apparatus consisted of 
a set of shears; in others it was a circular disk with 
a sharp cutting edge. With some, the heads of the 
grain alone were cut. These machines were in some 
cases pushed from behind by horses or oxen. One part 
after another of the reaper that finally became successful 
was worked out by different men, some in England and 
others in this country. Therefore, we must say that the 
perfected machine was not invented by any one man, 
but by many; it was the result of combining many useful 
features and devices — the product of many minds. 

The cutting apparatus on the successful reaper con- 
sists of a series of triangular blades, sharp upon the two 
exposed edges and fixed side by side, like large saw teeth, 
upon an iron bar. This bar or knife is given a vibrating 



146 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

motion as the reaper moves forward, and the blades are 
thus made to pass back and forth between double fingers 
or guards. These hold the stalks of grain that are cut 
by the rapidly moving blades. The idea of this device 
seems to have been worked out in America at about the 
same time by two men — ■ Cyrus McCormick and Obed 
Hussey. Which should have the credit for the invention 
has long been a matter of dispute. Hussey's patent 
was dated December 31, 1833, and McCormick's June 
21, 1834. But it is claimed that McCormick used his 
machine in actually cutting grain in the harvests of 
1 83 1 and 1832, as well as that of 1833. On the other hand, 
he admitted that his reaper was not a complete success 
until certain improvements were patented in 1845. With- 
out attempting to determine the relative part he played 
in giving us our modern harvester, let us look briefly 
into the life of this remarkable man. 

Cyrus McCormick was descended from a Scotch- 
Irish family that had settled in Pennsylvania in colonial 
times. It has been stated that many of these people 
moved southward, and the McCormick family settled 
upon a farm in the Shenandoah valley, known as Walnut 
Grove. Here Cyrus was born in 1809. The father, 
Robert McCormick, was constantly working upon im- 
provements in farm machinery, and among other things 
the invention of a reaper took much of his time. But 
he was unsuccessful in this. However, the machine 
which was a failure for the father proved useful, as it 
stood out in the weather by the side of the workshop, 
in arousing the curiosity of the son. As he grew older, 
Cyrus showed much more interest in the work of the car- 
penter and blacksmith shops than in that of the fields; 



WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 



147 



the result of his work upon the reaper was the invention 
of a device which was practically that described above 
as the cutting apparatus still in use. It is said that he 
used a machine having this device in cutting a field of 
rye in the summer of 1831. 




The First Type of MgCormick Reaper 



il'l 



Not satisfied with the results of his first efforts, Mc- 
Cormick worked patiently to improve them, testing 
his machine during the two following harvests before 
applying for a patent. Some of his neighbors testified 
in writing, in 1833, that they had witnessed the cutting 
of wheat by his machine at the rate of about twelve acres 
a day. This reaper had no raking apparatus, but a man 
walked by its side, raking the grain off the platform. 

During succeeding years until 1845, McCormick, with 
the aid of hired labor, made his machines in the little 
workshop on his father's farm. He sold the first reaper 
in 1840, and in 1845 ^^ty were sold. At this time the in- 
ventor made a trip through some of the Western States. 
He then discovered that the reaper would be much more 



148 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



useful upon the broad level prairie farms of the West 
than upon the small hilly ones of the East. For this 
reason he proposed to move his factory to a more suitable 
location than that of the Virginia valley homestead, 
where neither canal nor railroad could reach it. He went 
to Brockport, New York, on the Erie Canal, and here 
for three years manufactured reapers. At the same time 
he made arrangements with a factory in Cincinnati to 
manufacture them. But McCormick showed even greater 
wisdom when, in 1847, ^e moved to Chicago and there 
set up his factory in the center of the great grain producing 
region of the West. By the year i860 his factory was 
turning out 4000 machines each year. 

Meanwhile, other contestants for the honor and profit 
of this invention had come forward. Most prominent 

among these was Obed 
Hussey, whose patent 
was dated six months 
earlier than that of 
McCormick. The cut- 
ting apparatus on Hus- 
sey's reaper, used in 
1833, was much like 
that used by McCor- 
mick. His machine car- 
ried a frame and seat 
upon which a man rode, 
at the same time raking 
^^^^ the grain off onto the 
ground. Hussey was a Quaker, and his poverty kept him 
from developing his machine rapidly. Moreover, he did 
not show the energy and perseverance displayed by Mc- 




Hussey's Reaping Machine 



WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 149 

Cormick. In making improvements upon their machines, 
Hussey and McCormick borrowed ideas from each other, 
and it is possible that both got ideas from Enghsh inven- 
tors of the same time. When the terms of the patents of 
both men expired, they apphed to Congress for an exten- 




McCormick 's Reaping Machine 

As advertised in The Working Farmer, 1852. Notice that a man rides on 
the machine to rake off the grain. 

sion, but both were refused. McCormick fought many 
suits in the courts to maintain his rights. At one time 
Abraham Lincoln was employed as his lawyer. McCor- 
mick was the most successful of all the inventors whose 
ideas have gone into the perfection of the modern reaper. 
The reader should not fail to note here the vast impor- 
tance of this invention. All of the small grains require 
very careful handling at harvest time. When ripe they 
must be cut within a few days, or else the grain spoils 
in the field or falls to the ground. The invention of 
the iron plow, and especially the opening of the level 
prairie lands of the Northwest, made possible the cultiva- 
tion of the small grains upon a larger scale than ever 
before. But what use to plow and cultivate these great 



I50 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

fields, if the sickle and cradle alone were to cut the grain? 
The best that could be expected from a man using the 
cradle was about one and one-half acres a day. Suppose, 
then, that ten days were allowed for the harvest. It 
would require ten men merely to cut a quarter section of 
wheat, taking no account of the great labor of binding 
and shocking the grain. Not enough farm hands could 
be obtained to do the work by these methods. 

Besides, in the years between 1825 and i860, another 
industry was growing very rapidly in the United States, 
namely, manufacturing. While by far the larger number 
of people lived on farms, the workers in factories were 
rapidly increasing and must be fed by those who raised 
the crops of the country. The well-being of all who 
dwelt in cities, whether engaged in manufactures, com- 
merce, or the professions, was bound up in the success 
of the iron plow, the cultivator, the drill, and the reaper. 
For cheap bread depended upon the farmers' ability to 
cut large fields of grain; and this, in turn, depended upon 
the use of improved machinery in plowing, seeding, and 
cultivating. 

But there is another step in the handhng of small 
grains before the farmer is ready to dehver his crop to 
the miller: the process of threshing. The wooden flail 
and the threshing floor were in general use down to this 
period of our history. With the flail, from eight to sixteen 
bushels of grain, -depending upon its condition, could be 
threshed out in a day by one man. On the best threshing 
floors, when four teams of horses were used and kept 
going at a slow trot, some three hundred bushels was a 
day's task. The crude methods of separating the grain 
from the chaff by tossing or sifting it in a breeze required 



WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 



151 



a vast amount of patience, and were at best wasteful 
and unsatisfactory. A fanning mill for this purpose 
came into use early in the nineteenth century. 

Many attempts were made to invent a practical thresh- 
ing machine; and, as in the case of the reaper, the result, 
when it came, was the product of many minds. The 




Threshing Machine. — 1852 

Advertised in The Working Farmer as " Emery and Company's New- 
York State Agricultural Society's First Premium Railroad Horse Power and 
Over-shot Thresher and Separator." 

earliest kind had a series of flails attached to a revolving 
cylinder. Later, wooden pegs were set in the cylinder 
in such a way as to catch and beat the grain. It w^as 
1850 before the separator was attached to the thresher 
and the winnowing took place in the same machine, 
instead of in a fanning mill. Some of the early threshers 
were stationary, the grain being brought to them from 
the various farms of the surrounding region. The best 
threshing machines were made in Scotland, where they 
were in successful use by the year 18 14; but it was not 
until 1840 that they became common in this country. 
In the great Paris exposition of 1855, the thresher made 



152 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

by Hiram A. and John A. Pitts took a prize; their machine 
included the endless apron and other features of our 
modern thresher. 

The decade or two before the Civil War saw an increased 
demand for American grain, not only in the growing manu- 




The Pitts Thresher 
From The Cultivator for August, 1840. 

facturing centers of this country, but also abroad. 
Manufacturing had become a great industry in England 
somewhat earlier than in the United States. At the time 
when agriculture was still their most important industry, 
the English government had enacted measures, called 
''corn laws," putting high duties upon grains imported 
into that coufitry. ."But- as their factories became more 
numerous and their cities grew, these laws became oppres- 
sive to the poor laboring people, who demanded cheaper 
bread. Finally, in 1846, after much agitation against 
the selfish interests of the great landlords, the corn laws 
were repealed. 

Now American grain could be sold cheaper in England, 
and American exports increased. This was just at the 
time when the opening of the prairie farms and the inven- 
tion of machinery enabled farmers to produce a greater 
amount of grain. About the same time (1838), steam- 



WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 153 

ships began to cross the Atlantic Ocean, while in this 
country the building of canals and railroads was going 
forward rapidly, and the products of the western farms 
could be brought cheaply to the Atlantic seaports and 
to the manufacturing cities. Consequently, this was a 
period of great prosperity for the farmers of the United 
States, as it was for workers in other industries as well. 

This was the period when, owing to the use of improved 
farm machinery, agriculture changed its character more 
rapidly than at any previous time since the setthng of 
America. Farm Kfe also began to be different, for the 
growth of factories took away from the home more and 
more of the handwork that had found a place there from 
the earHest times. Graduahy the farm was ceasing to 
be a factory. The railway made it possible for agricul- 
tural products to be sent long distances to large markets, 
and for all kinds of manufactures to be bought cheaply 
at the country stores. The greater number of newspapers 
and the invention of the telegraph also aided in making 
farm life different from that of previous times. 

However, these changes came about very gradually, 
as is shown by this brief description of home life on a farm 
in western New York, about the year 1850.^ The farmer 
in this case was intelHgent and progressive, a reader of 
The Rural New Yorker and The Genessee Farmer. He 
had no reaper, probably because they were too expensive. 
One of his daughters writes as follows: ''My recollec- 
tions of my childhood home are very pleasant. Of the 
ten brothers and sisters in the home, some of the older 
ones were always away, attending school or teaching. 
The holidays and home-comings of the absent ones and 

^ The home described is that of the author's grandparents. 



154 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the family gatherings were ' red-letter ' days to us children. 
Thanksgiving time, with its preparations and feasting; 
Christmas, with the hanging up of stockings and the 
scramble to see what Santa Claus had put into them; 
the Fourth of July, with its fire-crackers and the thrills 
of patriotism, were great days of the year. But other 
special occasions stand out in my memory: the last day 
of school, with its public exhibition, the apple-paring 
bees, the sugaring-off time, threshing days, sheep shearing, 




^'^ 



Shearing Sheep 



butchering, and house-cleaning were always hailed with 
delight by us children as occasions of unusual stir and 
excitement. Even the dipping of candles, soap making, 
and white-washing days brought joy to us. Then the 
gathering in of the winter stores, the apples into the cellar 
bins, spitzenburghs, greenings, seek-no-furthers, northern 
spies, none-such and russets; the pippins, pound sweets, 
and jilly flowers for earlier use; the pumpkins gathered 
in piles by the barnyard fence, with the choicest ones 



WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 



155 







DECEMBER,tweirth month. Beginson Wednesday. 1841. 







.„ '/.-'t^^'PL 



''^^-»<=^--=*-^"?s£= 



G Q 



Aspects, Hoiydays., 
Courts^ Weather. Sfc. 



FARMERS' CALEJTDAR. 



Picture from the " Maine Farmer's Almanac for 1841 " 
After a copy in the library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. 



156 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

put into the cellar; the cider-making and boiHng down; 
the cider apple-sauce made by the half-barrel; the pre- 
serving and drying of fruits and of pumpkins; the smoking 
and drying of hams and beef; the trying out of lard and 
making of sausages; the making of the winter supply 
of mincemeat, were among the household industries. 

''Then there was the spinning, twisting, and winding 
of yarn to be knitted in the home or to be sent away to 
be woven into fabrics for blankets and sheets and wear- 
ing apparel. There was the coming to the house of a 
tailoress to sew by the week, making the men's heavy 
clothing, and of a seamstress to make the shirts and to 
do the family dressmaking. Those busy, stirring times 
are pleasant memories to me, while they must have meant 
toil and weariness and unremitting care to mother and 
the older children. The corn-cutting and gathering 
meant cornstalk fiddles to us children, and pumpkin 
time brought jack-o'-lanterns and much fun, while the 
early springtime brought pussy willows, whistles, and 
kites to make our hearts glad. 

"Our farm products were wheat, barley, oats, corn, 
hay, potatoes, and other vegbtables and fruits, of which 
apples and peaches were in greatest abundance, though 
we had pears, plums, cherries, currants, and berries also. 
Father raised sheep, cattle, hogs, and fowls to supply 
our own needs and for market. Small grain was sown 
by hand broadcast over the ground, previously prepared 
by plowing and harrowing. Corn was planted by hand, 
being dropped into the furrows and then covered with the 
hoe. Father often mixed ashes with his corn, and he 
planted corn and pumpkin seeds together, one to grow 
up and the other to spread over the ground. Ripe grain 



WHEN REAPERS WERE NEW 157 

was cut with a cradle and tied into bundles by hand, 
then gathered into shocks and brought to the barn-yard 
and stacked, ready for threshing. Grass was cut with a 
scythe and cured, then gathered into ricks and cocks 
and later loaded and brought to the barn. 

''Our food was simple, but wholesome and abundant. 
We had 'coarse' food a good deal, as our parents consid- 
ered that best for us: bread made of graham flour and 
cornmeal; grits, hominy, corn meal mush, etc. Our 
white bread was made without yeast and was called 
'salt rising bread.' In the winter, buckwheat cakes, 
occasionally doughnuts and raised sweet cake, pies, and 
puddings were also often on our table. Up to about 
1840 the food of the family was cooked in the fire-place. 
Meat and vegetables were cooked in iron pots, hung on 
a crane over the blazing logs. Mother baked Indian 
(corn) bread in a covered shallow iron kettle placed on 
the coals in a corner of the fire-place. For baking white 
bread, the bricks in front of the andirons were heated 
by drawing the live coals on to them; then the coals 
would be brushed back and the pans of bread set on the 
hot bricks and covered with a 'tin oven.' This was a 
long, deep tin pan inverted, with a handle for lifting 
it on and off the bread. 

"On winter days father would sometimes go to the 
'Potter place' and cut and bring home wood for our next 
year's use. Here also he cut wild cherry trees and had 
them made into furniture. Often on stormy days he 
would get out his shoemaker's tools and mend our boots 
and shoes, cut a supply of shoe strings, mend the harness, 
etc. Sometimes he and mother would make our shoes, 
mother making the upper part of cloth while father would 



158 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

put on the soles. He had a cupboard always well stocked 
with cobbler's supplies. 

"A few times in the course of the year, father with 
mother or one of the older girls would go to Rochester, 
thirty miles away, with a load of farm produce, wool, 
butter, cheese, eggs, chickens, etc. to exchange for house- 
hold supplies which could be procured more satisfac- 
torily than at our httle village stores. Peddlers supplied 
many of our wants." 

Such was the character of rural Hfe three-quarters of 
a century ago. One who is interested in doing so might 
readily make a list of the customs and appliances of 
farm and home that have disappeared; and he might 
enumerate in comparison the features that have taken 
their places, and still others that are entirely new. 



CHAPTER XIV 
PRAIRIE AGRICULTURE 

The Ohio River was at first the great highway for the 
westward-moving settlers. From this river they jour- 
neyed both northward and southward, using the streams 




The Untamed Prairie 

that enter it, and also the Indian trails, before the build- 
ing of roads. They also ascended the Mississippi and its 
tributaries. Everywhere they found that the country 
lying near to the rivers was covered with splendid forests. 
To this condition they were accustomed, and they used 
the methods already described in clearing the land and 



i6o AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

beginning the work of farming. Going farther north- 
ward, however, into northern Indiana and Illinois, the 
frontier settlers found stretches of open prairie land 
between the forest belts that lined the rivers. And 
finally, in the region bordering the Great Lakes and 
across the Mississippi in Iowa and Minnesota, there 
were thousands of square miles of level or rolling prairies, 
without any continuous forest whatever, though scattered 
groves were frequent. 

One who lived upon the Illinois prairie in the early days 
describes it as follows: ''The charm of a prairie consists 
in its extension — its green, flowery carpet, its undulat- 
ing surface, and the skirt of forest whereby it is sur- 
rounded . . . which may be compared to the shores of 
a lake, being intersected with many deep, inward bends, 
as so many inlets, and at intervals projecting very far, 
not unlike a promontory, or projecting arm of land. . . . 
The eye sometimes surveys the green prairie without 
discovering on the illimitable plain a tree or bush, or any 
other object, except the wilderness of flowers and grass, 
while on other occasions the view is enlivened by the 
groves dispersed like islands over the plain, or by a soli- 
tary tree rising above the wilderness. The resemblance 
to the sea which some of these prairies exhibit is really 
most striking. . . . 

"In the spring, when the young grass has just clothed 
the soil with a soddy carpet of the most delicate green, 
but especially when the sun, rising above a distant eleva- 
tion of the ground, has its rays reflected by myriads of 
dew drops, a more pleasing view cannot be imagined. 
You see the fallow deer quietly feeding on the herbage; 
the bee flies humming through the air; the wolf, with 



PRAIRIE AGRICULTURE 



i6i 



lowered tail, sneaks away to its distant lair; prairie- 
fowls, either in entire tribes, like our own domestic fowls, 
or in couples, cover the sur- 
face. . . . the multitude of 
these birds is surprisingly 
great. The plain is literally 
covered with them in every 
direction.* In the winter 
when a heavy fall of snow 
had driven them from the 
ground, I could see myriads 
of them clustered around 
the tops of the trees skirt- 
ing the prairie. They do 
not migrate, even after the 
prairie is already settled, but 
remain in the high grass 
near the newly-established 
farms. I often saw them 
familiarly mingle with the 
poultry of the settlers. . . . 
^'The variety of the wild 
fruit-trees, and of blossom- 
ing bushes, is so great, and so immense the abundance of 
the blossoms they are covered with, that the branches seem 
to break down under their weight. ... In summer the 
prairie is covered with tall grass, which is coarse in appear- 
ance, and soon assumes a yellow color, waving in the 
wind like a ripe crop of grain. ... In the earliest stages 
of its growth the grass is interspersed with little flowers, 
the violet, the strawberry blossom and others of the 
most delicate structure. When the grass grows higher, 




The Prairies of Illinois 
Adapted from Gerhard, Illinois 
As It Is. Notice that in the main 
the belts of woods follow the water 
courses. 



1 62 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

these disappear, and taller flowers, displaying more lively 
colors, take their place; and still later a series of still 
higher but less delicately formed flowers appears on the 
surface. While the grass is green, these beautiful plains 
are adorned with every imaginable variety of color. 
... In the winter the prairie presents a melancholy 
aspect. Often the fire, which the hunters annually send 
over the prairies, in order to dislodge the game* will de- 
stroy the entire vegetation, giving to the soil a uniform 
black appearance, Hke that of a vast plain of charcoal. 
. . . No sooner does the snow begin to fall than the ani- 
mals, unless already frightened away by the fire, retire 
into the forests, when the most dreary, oppressive soli- 
tude win reign on the burnt prairies, which often occupy 
many square miles of territory." ^ 

This prairie region was quite unlike those sections to 
which the settlers had been accustomed. For many 
years they hesitated to make their farms upon it, and 
clung to the wooded belts, though no more fertile soil 
could be found than the black prairie loam, three or more 
feet deep. There were several reasons why the settlers 
at first avoided the prairie. Timber was necessary for 
their buildings and fences. Often, too, there was scar- 
city of water on the prairies. Moreover, the woods 
gave protection from the storms of winter and the heat 
and troublesome prairie flies of summer. Another ob- 
stacle was the tough prairie sod, which made plowing 
very difficult. Some of the early settlers believed that 
the prairie was not fertile and that this was an unwhole- 
some region in which to live. It is true that much of 

1 Gerhard, Illinois As It Is, 272 ff. 



PRAIRIE AGRICULTURE 



163 



the level prairie was low, and where swamps were com- 
mon the people suffered from fever and miasma. 

But when the forested regions were well taken up, 
settlement spread to the smaller openings, where the 
farmers built their houses upon the edge of the woods. 
Thus the larger prairies were gradually attacked. This 




#*0v„ 



-c 










Going West by Erie Canal 

process was greatly aided by the invention of the prairie 
breaking plow, which has been described in Chapter 
XII. It was pulled by three, four, or five yoke of oxen, 
and cut a strip of turf twenty or more inches wide and 
two or three inches deep, which was turned completely 
over. 

Certain events that must now be mentioned also had 
an influence, similar to that of the breaking plow, in 
hastening the settlement of the prairies. In 1833 the 
Cumberland, or National, road was completed as far as 
Columbus, Ohio, and thousands of emigrant wagons 
moved upon it every summer, headed westward. In 
18 1 6 steamboats were used on Lake Ontario and in 18 18 
on Lake Erie; and soon they were carrying their loads 
of land-seekers to the West. In 1825 the Erie Canal 



164 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



was completed, and this became the highway of travel 
for New Englanders, New Yorkers, and newly arrived 
immigrants from abroad. 

After the War of 181 2 there had been a period of hard 
times; this led many to seek their fortunes in the West. 
So rapid was settlement, so many farms were opened 

and new towns built, 
that much Western land 
was bought by specula- 
tors. Land advanced 
very rapidly in price and 
often sold for more than 
it was really worth. 
Then came the terrible 
crisis of 1837, when 
those who had invested 
in Western lands at high 
prices found their for- 
tunes gone. Business 
Map Showing Population, 1830-1840 ^^^ stopped in the East, 

In this decade the population had , , r i. i 

spread rapidly over the prairies of the and numbers ot bank- 
Middle West, and had also increased the rupt business men and 
extent of the cotton-growing area. ^ 

laborers out of work 
sought the West as the place for beginning Hfe over 
again. It was under these circumstances that the prairie 
region east of the Mississippi River was settled (see the 
map). 

It is interesting to note how conditions of farm work 
and farm life here differed from those that existed in 
the forested region farther east and south. In the first 
place, Httle clearing, except the cutting of hazel brush, 
was necessary, so the farms could be brought under 




PRAIRIE AGRICULTURE 165 

cultivation much more rapidly than in the forested 
regions. After the sod was broken, a crop of ''sod corn'' 
might be raised the first year merely by dropping . the 
seed into the break between the furrows or into a slit 
made by an ax. At the end of the season, the sod, if it 
had not been plowed too deep, had rotted and the field 
might be cross-plowed. Then a crop of wheat was sown; 
or, this might be done while the cornstalks were left 
standing, since they would keep the protecting snow from 
being blown off by the sweeping winter winds. The fresh 
prairie soil yielded crops of from fifty to one hundred 
bushels of corn, twenty-five of wheat, and forty or more 
of oats and barley. 

The life and work of a boy on one of the pioneer farms 
in southern Wisconsin is described by John Muir, the 
celebrated naturalist, whose family moved there from 
Scotland. He says: "At first, wheat, corn, and pota- 
toes were the principal crops we raised; wheat especially. 
But in four or five years the soil was so exhausted that 
only five or six bushels an acre, even in the better fields, 
were obtained, although when first plowed twenty and 
twenty-five were about the ordinary yield. More atten- 
tion was then paid to corn, but without fertilizers the 
corn crop also became very meagre. At last it was dis- 
covered that Enghsh clover would grow on even the 
exhausted fields, and that when plowed under and planted 
with corn, or even wheat, wonderful crops were raised. 
This caused a complete change in farming methods. 
The farmers raised fertilizing clover, planted corn, and 
fed the crop to cattle and hogs. 

"In summer the chores were grinding scythes, feeding 
the animals, chopping stove-wood, and carrying water 



1 66 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

up the hill from the spring on the edge of the meadow, 
and so forth. Then breakfast, and to the harvest or 
hayiield. I was fooHshly ambitious to be first in the 
mowing and cradling, and, by the time I was sixteen, 
led all the hired men. An hour was allowed at noon, 
and then more chores. We stayed in the field until 
dark; then supper, and still more chores, family worship, 
and to bed; making altogether a hard, sweaty day of 
about sixteen or seventeen hours. ... In winter, father 
came to the foot of the stairs and called us at six o'clock 
to feed the horses and cattle, grind axes, bring in wood, 
and do any other chores required; then breakfast, and 
out to work in the mealy, frosty snow by daybreak, chop- 
ping, fencing, and so forth. So in general our winter 
work was about as restless and trying as that of the long- 
day summer. No matter what the weather, there was 
always something to do. During heavy rain- or snow- 
storms we worked in the barn, shelling corn, fanning 
wheat, thrashing with the flail, making axe-handles, ox 
yokes, mending things, or sorting sprouting potatoes in 
the cellar. . . . 

''As for money, for many years there was precious 
little of it in the country for anybody. Eggs sold at 
six cents a dozen in trade, and five-cent calico was ex- 
changed at twenty-five cents a yard. Wheat brought 
fifty cents a bushel in trade. To get cash ... it had 
to be hauled to Milwaukee, a hundred miles away." 
"Our breaking plow turned a furrow two feet wide, and 
on our best land held so firm a grip that, at the end of 
the field, my brother, who was driving the oxen, had to 
come to my assistance in throwing it over on its side 
to be drawn around the end of the landing; and it was 




Breaking or Sod Plow 
Historical Department of Iowa. 



PRAIRIE AGRICULTURE 167 

all I could do to set it up again. But I learned to keep 

that plough in such trim that after I got started on 

a new furrow I used to 

ride on the cross-bar 

between the handles, 

with my feet resting 

comfortably on the 

beam, without having 

to steady or steer it in 

any way until it reached 

the other end, unless we had to go Ground a stump, for 

it sawed through the biggest grubs without flinching."^ 

The prairie farmer, unless he lived in an ''oak opening," 
was puzzled at first how to provide himself with fences. 
There were few logs, so the ''snake" rail fences common 
elsewhere were seldom seen. Lumber was scarce and 
expensive. Sometimes sod was used and upon it hedges 
were planted. Young trees, set thickly, made a good 
fence. Later, the invention of barbed wire solved the 
difficulty and had important results. 

Upon what terms, it may be asked, did the early 
prairie farmers obtain their lands? It will be remem- 
bered that by a law of 1820 the price of government 
land was reduced to $1.25 an acre. By a law of 1832, 
the land might be divided into forty-acre tracts. Land 
offices, were estabhshed at various points in the West. 
When a tract had been surveyed, it was opened for 
settlement. On certain days, advertised beforehand, 
the land was offered to the highest bidder at auction, but 
the price must be at least $1.25 an acre. Later, any 
that was unsold could be bought for that price at private 
^ John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. 



1 68 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

sale. As the day for opening the land office, or for be- 
ginning the sale of a particular tract, approached, scores 
of prospective buyers would gather, anxiously awaiting 
the opportunity to get choice ''quarters" (i.e. quarter 
sections, of i6o acres). From the active buying that 
followed such occasions has come the common expression, 
*'land office business." 

There were laws that prohibited settlers from moving 
onto Indian lands and those that had not been surveyed, 
but these laws were many times broken by the eager 
land-seekers. Often they could not afford to wait in 
the city where the land office was located for the sales 
to begin. Then, too, it was often expensive to make a 
journey to the land office at a particular time. Thus it 
happened that upon Indian and government lands, both 
surveyed and unsurveyed, there were thousands of " squat- 
ters" who had no legal title to their farms. Sometimes 
they had to be driven off the Indian lands by government 
troops.' Of course, any person who bought at a land 
office a tract that was already under cultivation by a 
squatter had the legal right to force him away, unless the 
squatter would buy the farm. In this period speculators 
bought large tracts of land with no intention of farming 
them. It seemed, therefore, that the entire system 
worked a hardship upon the poor squatter; but, on the 
other hand, he was responsible for the careless and un- 
lawful manner in which he had begun his farm. In order 
to protect themselves from "claim- jumpers," as the 
purchasers of occupied land were called, the squatters 
often formed associations, agreeing that they would 
protect their common rights and not allow outsiders to 
buy their claims. At the auction sales they agreed not 



PRAIRIE AGRICULTURE 



169 



to allow anyone to bid higher than $1.25 an acre. If 
an outsider did this, or attempted to buy land that was 
already occupied, he was threatened with a club or a 
halter until he was glad to get away from the neighborhood. 
In this way there grew up the custom of recognizing 
the right of a squatter to the land he occupied; and 
Congress made provision for this situation by passing 
"pre-emption laws" at different times. Finally, in 1841, 
it was enacted that the squatter should have the first 
right to purchase his farm at the regular government 
price. 




Buffaloes on the Plain 



In the Far West the settler's house was often built of 
sod. Cattle were not well cared for, but were allowed to 
roam freely on the ranges of government land. When 
no fences were needed, the raising of cattle was a profit- 
able business. They were fattened with corn, thrown 
in the ear upon the ground. The pigs were then turned 
in to clean up the grains left by the cattle. 

As in the forest region, wild game was plentiful on 



I70 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the prairies, and the early farmer obtained much of his 
food from it. Great herds of buffaloes and deer were 
frequently seen. There were flocks of partridges and 
pheasants. Danger sometimes came from the packs of 
hungry wolves that followed the traveller on his journey. 
The blinding snowstorms of winter also brought death 
to many who tried to find their way through them even 
for short distances. 

But the greatest source of danger in the prairie region 
was the terrible prairie fire. The vast stretches of open 
country, covered in late summer and autumn with dry 
grass, were frequently swept by these fires, driven by 
fierce winds. As a precaution it was necessary for the 
farmer to surround his house, barn, and fields of grow- 
ing crops with belts of plowed land over which the flames 
could not travel. Often the farmer burned the dry grass 
about his home and fields, with the same object in view. 
This was called ''back firing." Even then, the flying 
brands and sparks often brought the fire to the farmer's 
home, and he lost in an hour all the product of years of 
labor. ^ 

Like the pioneers of the States farther east, the first 
settlers of the prairies were sometimes of the shiftless, 
unsettled sort. They built only poor log or frame houses, 
in which they suffered great hardship during the severe 
northern winters. Becoming dissatisfied, or crowded too 
closely by neighbors, such a farmer would decide to move 
on when a good chance came to sell out to a more pros- 
perous land-seeker. "The bargain being concluded, he 
stows his 'plunder' underneath the cover of the large 

^ James Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie pictures the conditions here 
described. 



PRAIRIE AGRICULTURE 171 

wagon, harnesses his four horses before it, hangs his 
bucket beneath and his feed-box behind, starts his two 
cows on in advance, sets his eldest boy on the right-hand 
wheel horse, with a single rein in his hand, and com- 
mences his journey westward, shaking the dust of the 
Yankee settlements from his feet." The "mover" often 
had no place of settlement in view, but merely drove on 
and on for weeks, shooting all the game his family could 
eat and buying a little bread or depending upon the 
hospitahty of the more thrifty farmers. 

But this was by no means the representative type of 
settler on the prairie frontier. Because better roads had 
been opened, and especially because the steamboat could 
bring men from the East so easily and cheaply to the 
Western lake ports, the better class of farmers came early. 
They brought implements and stock. They had ready 
money to spend in making farm improvements. More- 
over, men of other occupations, learning that the frontier 
was not a place of hardship, came in large numbers. 
Thus the prairie farms and towns were not long kept in 
the crude pioneer condition seen farther south. Settle- 
ment and advancement were both much more rapid. 

In 1853 the railroad reached Chicago and in 1854 the 
Mississippi River. Then the newcomers swarmed over 
the prairie lands of the North Central states and pene- 
trated north into the region of pine forests. In 1850 the 
Illinois Central Railroad received a large grant of land. 
When this and the grants made afterward to other rail- 
road companies were put upon the market at low prices, 
the settlement of the West was still further hastened. 

Conditions on the prairies of the Central West offered 
less variety of life and occupation for the younger mem- 



172 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

bers of the farm household than were found in the wooded 
region farther east.^ With the growth of manufactures 
and the spread of railroads, many articles and imple- 
ments of common use that formerly were made by hand 
could now be purchased. The boy on the farm had no 
less labor to perform, but there were fewer kinds of tasks 
and those he had lasted longer, and he suffered from the 
dreadful monotony of them. The fall plowing of the 
smooth prairie loam lasted for weeks at a time. Corn 
planting and picking in the large prairie fields, before the 
days of machinery, soon lost the charm of novelty and 
became dull, heavy drudgery. Pitching and stacking 
hay was hand labor that strained to excess the muscles 
of the growing boy. The task of caring for the cattle 
offered more attraction. In the early days these wan- 
dered at will on the vacant land and it was necessary to 
go on horseback to hunt them and round them up. This 
occupation might turn into a merry chase of a rebellious 
steer; and sometimes wild ponies also gave occasion for 
a race. Of pleasures on the prairie farm there were 
many: snaring gophers, chasing wolves, swimming, fish- 
ing, and skating. Winter was hailed by the young as 
bringing relief from the drudgery of heavy work; going to 
school in those days was equal to having a vacation. 

^ See vivid descriptions in Hamlin Garland's Boy Life on the Prairie. 
Other items in this sketch are derived from this interesting book. 



CHAPTER XV 
AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS 

Louisiana Purchase. — Texas — California-— 
Oregon 

The history of the United States is the history of a 
westward-moving people. Closely following the hunters, 
trappers, and traders, who were ever plunging into the 
wilderness, came the frontier farmers. These settled 
along our western borders and even crossed over into 
regions owned or claimed by other nations. It is the 
purpose of this chapter to give pictures of pioneer farm- 
ing in these various regions, and to show how the acquisi- 
tions of territory by the United States were closely related 
to these peaceful agricultural invasions. 

It is well known that in colonial times the French built 
posts at many points in the Mississippi Valley. In the 
minds of the French, the principal reasons for estabhsh- 
ing these posts were to build up the fur trade and to 
hold their vast possessions. But here, as elsewhere, agri- 
culture was a necessary occupation, and it was from the 
fields and gardens of the peasant settlers, or habitants, that 
the soldiers, hunters, traders, and missionaries obtained 
many of their suppHes. 

The French farmers of the "Illinois Country" or ''Upper 
Louisiana," as it was called, including the settlements of 
the present states of Illinois and Missouri, did not scatter 
and Hve on isolated farms as the American pioneers of 



174 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



the West did; instead, they grouped their houses in 
villages. This was the custom of the mother country, 
and it secured protection from the Indians. The village 

was a long, straight street (or 
perhaps two streets) with the 
houses ranged on either side. 
The logs that formed the sides 
of the houses stood on end. 
Porches, covered by extensions 
of the roof, were built at both 
front and back. Each dooryard 
was guarded by a picket fence, 
and the gardens at the rear 
were inclosed in the same man- 
ner. Besides his village lot, 
each habitant owned a long, 
narrow strip of land in the 
'^ common field." This field 
was surrounded by a fence, for 
protection against both domes- 
tic and wild animals, and each habitant was obliged to 
keep up that part of the fence which bordered his strip. 
Some of the farm implements were owned in common; all 
were very simple and crude. Besides owning his village 
lot and common field strip, the French settler had the 
right to pasture in the meadows and to gather wood in 
the forest. This system resembled in more than one way 
the original land and farm system of the New England 
town. (See Chapter. VI.) 

As in New England, a gathering of the men, which 
here was held by the church door after mass, decided 
such questions as the proper time for plowing, sowing. 




French Settlements in the 
Mississippi Valley 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS 175 

and harvesting. The officer who supervised .this work 
was the syndic. 

One must not imagine a very advanced state of agricul- 
ture in these Httle forest settlements; for the few products 
desired were easily raised and the habitant loved to hunt 
and trade with the Indians. It was a simple life with 
many pleasures, — quiet neighborhood visits with cards 
and music, and many gay holidays with sports and dances 
brought from the mother land. But there were also 
hardships and dangers. 

It will be remembered that during the American 
Revolution George Rogers Clark captured the posts of 
the Illinois Country for the United States. This caused 
some of the French to move over into Missouri, where 
settlements had already been begun. The country west 
of the Mississippi had been given to Spain in 1763, and 
the Spanish government was very liberal in granting land 
to new settlers. To this region there came, besides the 
French, many Americans from Kentucky and Tennessee. 
When we. gained the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, some 
10,000 settlers lived there. Unlike the French, the 
Americans generally lived in scattered homes and made 
typical frontier farms, such as have already been de- 
scribed. Their log houses were often built in two square 
sections that stood ten or twenty feet apart and were 
connected by a continuation of their roofs. In the covered 
space between the sections much of the family life 
centered, especially during hot weather. 

The American settlers were the restless, and sometimes 
the shiftless, kind who disHked to live in settled communi- 
ties; they were almost as much interested in hunting and 
fishing as in farming. The soil in the river bottoms was 



176 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

very rich, and their hogs and cattle increased rapidly in the 
woods; so getting a living required little exertion. Still, 
their farms yielded a surplus, for we find them shipping 
down the river to New Orleans quantities of flour, bacon, 
hams, salted beef, and venison, besides tallow and hides. 

It was to this region that Daniel Boone came when 
he found himself surrounded by too many neighbors in 
his home farther east. He settled on a branch of the 
Missouri River, after having obtained a large grant from 
the Spanish government on condition that he should 
bring 150 families to the Missouri Country. But he never 
actually got possession of his grant. He lived here until 
his death in 1820. 

Meanwhile, a flourishing settlement had grown up on 
the lower Mississippi River, in the vicinity of New Orleans. 
Besides the small farms of the French peasants, we find 
here plantations worked by slaves and producing sugar, 
rice, cotton, tobacco, and indigo. The plantations were 
ranged along the banks of the great river, upon the rich 
soil that had been deposited by it in its periods of over- 
flow. Dykes or embankments were built on the river's 
edge to prevent the overflowing of its banks. 

Many of the settlers in this region were the Acadians 
who had been taken from their homes in Nova Scotia 
when the British conquered that colony.^ Besides people 
of mixed French or Spanish and Indian blood, there were 
also Americans here. The settlements extended up the 
valleys of the rivers, especially that of the Red, and when 
Louisiana became a possession of the United States 
there were about forty thousand people in this region. 

It was the conviction that our Western settlements must 

1 Read Longfellow's Evangeline. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS 177 

expand and must have a free outlet for their products that 
led Jefferson and other statesmen to see the necessity for 
acquiring New Orleans. In the end, it came about that 
the United States purchased -all of the Louisiana Country. 

Texas 

Just as venturesome American farmers had crossed 
the Mississippi and settled beyond the borders of their 
country before the Louisiana Purchase was acquired, 
so, again, they invaded the Spanish territory of Texas 
"and began to make homes there. Before their arrival, 
Spanish missions had been established among the Indians 
during the eighteenth century. But the missions were 
not on the whole very successful, and many of them 
were decayed at the time the Americans began to come. 
Attached to each mission was a small farm; and many 
cattle ranged upon the plains about it. 

Moses Austin, a native of Connecticut, was the first 
American to plan a movement of farmers to Texas. 
After losing a fortune in Missouri, he went on horseback 
to San Antonio and obtained from the Spanish governor 
a large grant of land (18 19). It was his intention to 
conduct to his grant some three hundred settlers from the 
United States. Austin died the next year, and the 
work was carried on by his son Stephen. The grant was 
located between the Colorado and the Brazos rivers. 
According to the original plan, each head of a family was 
to have 640 acres and, in addition, 320 acres for his wife, 
160 acres for each child, and 80 acres for every slave that 
he owned. Austin was to receive twelve and one-half 
cents per acre to cover the expenses of carrying out the 
project. The first companies of settlers had many 



178 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

difficulties, including Indian troubles and failure to get 
their supplies; and some of them returned. 

Meanwhile, great events were occurring. In 1821, 
Mexico, of which country Texas was a part, became free 
from Spain. There followed a revolt in Mexico itself, 
as a result of which it became a repubhc. Following the 
example of Austin, many other Americans, known as 
empresarios, or contractors, obtained from the Mexican 
government grants similar to his. Some of these were 
vast in extent, until finally the whole of Texas was covered 
with them. But these empresarios, in spite of their big 
schemes, brought in few settlers. Many more came as 
individuals. They were the typical western frontiers- 
men, always on the lookout for more pleasant fields. 
Since the greater part came from the Southern states, 
many slaves were thus brought to Texas. 

Before the year 1830 there were in Texas about 20,000 
whites, most of whom were Americans. The Mexican 
government had become alarmed at this peaceful agri- 
cultural invasion and tried to stop it. The government jij 
also aboHshed slavery, but with no effect in Texas. 

A situation such as this could have but one result. 
Many thousand American farmers and ranchmen, im- 
bued with the free spirit of the frontier, would not 
permanently be governed under the distant Spanish- 
American rule of Mexico. The attempt of Mexico to 
deprive them of their slaves was very irritating. The 
rebellion of 1836, led by General Sam Houston, gave 
Texas its independence, and started it on its way toward 
annexation to the United States. But this was not 
destined to come about for nine years. 

Meanwhile, the population, almost entirely agricul- 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS 179 

tural, grew to nearly 100,000. In the river bottoms, 
where the soil was of great fertility, the typical crops of 
the South were grown, including cotton and sugar. Out 
upon the prairies there was mixed farming. The damp 
lowlands had growths of canebrake and the prairies had 
tall grasses of many varieties that made Texas an ideal 
cattle country. The new State of Texas (1845) made 
slavery legal and gave very liberal grants of land to 
settlers; consequently, at the time of the Civil War 
Texas was one of the largest cotton-producing states in 
the South, though only a small fraction of her immense 
area was under cultivation. 



California 

CathoHc missionaries came into southern California 
in the latter part of the 
eighteenth and the first 
part of the nineteenth cen- 
turies. They founded nu- 
merous missions, and it 
was about these that the 
earhest farm life of CaK- 
fornia was developed. 
The mission church had 
massive stone walls in 
which were niches and 
open arches where bells 
were hung. There were 
picturesque galleries with 
arches supported by rows 
of columns, the ruins of 




Spanish Missions in Calefornia 



i8o AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

which may still be seen. About the mission church was 
the village, or rancheria. Here were clustered the mud 
brick, or adobe huts of the Indians, the storehouses and 
the workshops where the Indians were taught the various 
arts — blacksmithing, carpentry, weaving, and leather 
work. The mission had grain fields and fruitful orchards, 
where grew oranges, peaches, and the best of grapes. 
There were also gardens and pastures. When natural 




Plan of a Spanish Mission Settlement 

water was not abundant, irrigation kept the crops fresh. 
The work about the mission was done by the Indians, 
under compulsion, so they were little better than slaves. 
It was thought necessary to rule the natives with an iron 
hand, in order that they should lead orderly, industrious 
lives. 

Besides the simple farm life of field and orchard, the 
missions were the center of another activity — ranching. 
Thousands of acres of grazing lands were granted to each 
mission, and here roamed vast herds and flocks. Besides 
grasses, they fed upon the alfileria, or ''filaree," and wild 
oats. They were in charge of horsemen, called vaqueros, 
who were of Spanish or mixed Spanish and Mexican 
origin. They were like our modern cow-boys, dressing in 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS i8i 

fancy Mexican style, riding hardy mustangs, and per- 
forming wonders with the lariat in catching and throwing 
the wild steers and horses. One of the missions that 
owned 76,000 head of cattle, 79,000 sheeep, 310 yoke of 
oxen, and 6000 horses may be thought of as a type of 
the twenty or more similar establishments that were 
scattered through southern California. Quantities of 
hides and tallow were shipped out by vessel to the eastern 
part of the United States and to Europe. As there was 
no use for the meat of so many slaughtered animals, the 
greater part of it was thrown away. The wool of the 
mission sheep was coarse, and was made into blankets 
and garments for the Indians. 

The destruction of this interesting mission life came 
when the Mexican government, about 1833, began to 
seize the property of the Catholic orders and to free the 
Indians from the control of the padres (fathers). The 
Indians were given land which they were to own as 
farmers; but they soon fell back into idle and barbarous 
habits. Again, Americans who came to California in the 
succeeding years, eager for the best lands, duped the 
poor Indians and in various ways crowded them off 
their possessions. 

The first Americans in California were hunters, trappers, 
and traders. But as early as 1835 a Dr. John Marsh 
had a ranch and farm near the junction of the San Joa- 
quin and Sacramento rivers. 

Of more interest is the great estate of John Sutter, a 
Swiss who had come to Cahfornia to make his fortune. 
This was located at the present site of Sacramento. 
He had extensive wheat fields, flocks, herds, and orchards; 
there were also workshops where both whites and Indians 



lS2 AGRICITTITIE IN THE I'XITED STATES 

carried on all kinds of necessary handwork. Some fifty 
niiles above, on the American River. Sutter buDt a saw- 
mill, and it was here, in the mill-race, that Marshall, who 
was in charge of the work, found the flakes of gold that 
soon set the entire country ahre \s-ith excitement. 

This was id 1S4S. and meantime numerous Americans 
had come overland to Cahfornia, where thev settled as 




-^,:^ffe^. 



A Caltforxlajs- Wagon Tr.aix 
After an old print. 



farmers and ranchers. \Mien war broke out between 
the United States and Mexico, these Americans revolted, 
and. with the aid of United States troops, took possession 
of the government. The end of the war brought with it 
the annexation of California, as a part of the Mexican 
cession. Following the discovery of gold and the rush 
of men to the new mines, food of aU kinds was very much 
in demand. Cattle and horses were increased in value 
a hundredfold. Some who were not crazed by the 
struggle for gold began to raise potatoes, melons, and 
vegetables, for which they received fabulous prices; 
as but httle wheat was raised, the greater amount of the 
flour had to be imported. 

It was some years before the settlers of Cahfornia 
understood fully the possibilities of the State as a grain- 
producing region. Meanwhile, better stock was brought 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS 183 

from the East and the cattle business became very im- 
portant. Where the level lands were treeless the East- 
erners thought the soil must be poor. Then, too, the 
barren and desert-like appearance of the plains, which 
often were parched and cracked by heat and drought, 
discouraged those who were accustomed to a different 
kind of country. But when, gradually, the nature of 
the soil and climate came to be understood, agriculture 
advanced rapidly, and by 1870 the value of the wheat 
produced in California almost equaled that of the gold 
found in its mines. 

At first, careless methods of cultivation were used, for 
the fields were of immense size. Wheat was planted in 
the fall; after harvest the field was dragged, and this 
served to scatter the kernels that had dropped from the 
dried heads. From this seed another, or "volunteer," 
crop came up; and even a third crop might be realized 
in the same manner. The wheat was cut by a header, 
which merely clipped off the heads and threw them into 
a huge wagon-box that was drawn by the side of the 
machine. Besides wheat, fruits of various kinds — 
peaches, plums, nectarines, berries, oranges, olives, and 
grapes — were produced in great quantities. 

For a quarter of a century CaHfornia continued to be 
one of the important wheat-producing sections, yearly 
exporting great quantities of this grain. Gradually, 
however, the time came about when fruits and mLxed 
farming became more important. This was due partly 
to the practice of irrigation, partly to improvements in 
fruit culture and marketing, and partly to reasons dis- 
cussed in a later chapter (Chapter XIX). 



1 84 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

Oregon 

North of California lies a vast region, stretching from the 
Pacific to the eastern range of the Rocky-Mountains and 
northward to Alaska. This was the ''Oregon Country." 
England and the United States could not agree upon the 
matter of its possession, but in 1818 they had decided upon 
a policy of "joint occupation." To whom should this 
wonderful region belong? This was the question that was 
decided in the period whose events we are now to trace; 
and it will be seen that the history of agriculture on the 
Pacific Coast is closely related to the final decision. 

English traders, under the Hudson's Bay Company, 
established Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, in 
1825, and made it the center of their business. Here 
from all directions the hunters and trappers employed by 
the Company brought their packs of skins and furs; and 
here, also, was begun the first work in agriculture in the 
Oregon Country. 

Dr. John McLoughlin, who managed the Hudson's Bay 
Company's business in this district, had at Fort Van- 
couver a farm that grew to include several thousand acres. 
It lay in the fertile lands along the Columbia River, 
and produced various grains, fruits, and vegetables. 
There were extensive pastures, cattle and horses having 
been brought from California, and hogs from the Ha- 
waiian Islands. The products of this farm, besides supply- 
ing the post, were sold to vessels engaged in whaling 
along the coast, and to Russians who had posts in Alaska. 
Later, men who had left the employ of the Company 
settled down upon little farms and added somewhat to 
the agricultural life of the vicinity. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS 185 




Meanwhile, interest in the Oregon Country was being 
aroused in the United States. Missionaries came there 
in the thirties and founded mission stations in the Willa- 
mette Valley, about sixty miles 
from the mouth of the river. 
The most noted of the mission- 
aries was Marcus Whitman. 
The story of his various jour- 
neys to Oregon and his work in 
gathering followers to go there, 
until he was killed by the In- 
dians in 1847, is full of inter- 
est. Other missions were later Mission Settlements in the 
founded on the Columbia River Oregon Country 

above the present site of Walla Walla. About each mis- 
sion there soon appeared gardens and cultivated fields; 
for farmers had come with the missionaries, and a few 
cattle were secured from Fort Vancouver. In 1837 the 
settlers formed the Willamette Cattle Company and raised 
money with which to send men to California for the pur- 
pose of securing more horses and cattle. Several hundred 
were brought back. Besides trying to make converts of the 
Indians, the missionaries also taught them to raise crops. 

And now more settlers began to come to Oregon, 
attracted by the prospect of obtaining rich land without 
cost in a country of delightful cHmate. Missionaries and 
others returning to the East held meetings, delivered 
lectures, distributed pamphlets, and so advertised the 
country. The years that followed the crisis of 1837 were 
^'hard times" in the East, and this fact stimulated migra- 
tion to Oregon. In addition to its attractions as an 
agricultural region, the Oregon Country was known to 



1 86 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

be rich in other resources — furs, fish, and lumber. So 
the "Oregon fever" was caught by many, who were 
induced to try the difficult journey across the desert and 
over the mountains by the Oregon Trail. 

The year 1843 saw a great migration to Oregon. Nearly 
a thousand people in a company, with more than a 
hundred covered wagons and several thousand head of 
cattle, started from Independence on the Missouri River. 
The company was divided into sections, each with its 
captains and guides, as well as its body of hunters, who 
were to secure game for food and to watch for Indian 
foes. The wagons advanced in single file, at a slow pace, 
the entire journey lasting for several months. At night 
the wagons of each division were brought into a circle, 
the animals were turned out to graze, and the men were 
divided into groups to stand guard. "After the evening 
meal there was a social time within the circle, and all were 
merry. The children frolicked, the young people enjoyed 
the violin and flute and dance and song, while the older 
recounted incidents of the twenty miles' travel, and fore- 
cast the morrow and anticipated Oregon." 

Many smaller companies, both before and after this, 
undertook the same journey. Some suffered from ad- 
verse weather, others from Indian attacks, and still others 
were lost in the wilderness. All were imbued with the 
strong American love of adventure and the longing for 
free land that had carried men and women over the 
Alleghany Mountains and along the streams of the 
IMississippi Valley. 

In their Oregon homes the settlers lived as did the other 
frontier settlers whose homes and farms have been de- 
scribed. They raised a variety of products (corn, wheat, 



■t 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW POSSESSIONS 187 

oats, potatoes, and vegetables) and had good markets, 
not only among the fur traders and upon the vessels 
that visited the coast, but also in distant California and 
Hawaii. As they had no settled government at first, 
they were obliged, like the early settlers of New England 
and those of the Alleghany Mountain valleys, to form one 
for themselves. 

In addition to the Columbia River settlements, the 
Americans also went to the Puget Sound region. By 
the year 1846 there were six thousand Americans in the 
Oregon Country, and now the question of ownership had 
to be decided. Great Britain had made a strong claim 
for the country as far south as the Columbia River, her 
claim being based chiefly upon the work of her fur traders. 
But trading stations are a weak indication of actual 
ownership, as compared with farms. Many Americans 
raised the cry ''fifty-four forty or fight," meaning that 
our northern boundary should be located at 54° 40' north 
latitude. Fortunately, the dispute was settled without 
war. Both sides gave up their extreme- claims, and the 
fine was run along the parallel 49° north latitude as the 
boundary between the United States and Canada. 

After the discovery of gold in California, many of the 
Oregon settlers went there. But those who remained 
found Cahfornia a better market than before. They 
were given by Congress most liberal grants of land — to 
every citizen then in Oregon 320 acres, and to his wife 
as much more. 

Such were the beginnings of agriculture in these various 
additions to the original area of our country. In each 
case American farmers settled in the new region before 



1 88 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

it became a part of the United States. And in each 
case there is a close connection between the fact of agri- 
cultural settlement and the fact of acquisition. In other 
words, we may say that the flag has followed the farmer. 
The adventurous character of the frontier farmer led 
him by difficult journeys into strange lands in search of 
a free life and better fortune. And this spirit of the 
expanding West accorded so well with the ideas of the 
American people as a whole, that these various acquisi- 
tions seemed not only natural but inevitable. In fact, 
nothing but the Ocean could stay the advancing tide of 
the men who held the plow. 



CHAPTER XVI 



THE COTTON KINGDOM 

0\ ^. who wishes to get a correct idea of . farm Hfe and 
work in the South before the Civil War should be re- 
minded of several very important facts, (i) Much of 
the land in the 



South was un- 
cultivated; the 
traveller might 
ride for miles 
through forests 
and wild land. 
Population was 
very sparse in 
most places. 
Besides, the 
fields exhausted 
by cotton culti- 
vation were left 
to become overgrown with weeds and brush. (2) We 
have previously seen that not all, nor even most, of the 
cultivated land was found in the large cotton plantations. 
These were mainly in the localities of the richest soil. 
Elsewhere there were small farms. Sometimes the small 
farmers had one or two slaves, but more often none at 
all. (3) It must be remembered that while in some 
respects the great plantations were much alike, there 




Southern Planter's House 
After a sketch. 



I go AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



were yet many differences, just as to-day one may find 
in any large section of our country great differences in 
the methods used by farmers. Some may be careful in 
tiUing their soil, intelligent in the use of implements, and 
kind in their treatment of their animals, hired hands, 
and children. Others, again, may show exactly the 
opposite qualities and may be lazy, shiftless, and brutal 

at the same 
time. These 
differences make 
it difficult to 
give in a short 
space a good de- 
scription of 
Southern agri- 
culture. Only 
some of the 
more general 
features can be 
described. 
Of course, the 

place of most interest in all the Southern country is the 
large plantation. This might embrace hundreds or thou- 
sands of acres, only part of which were in cultivated fields, 
worked by fifty, a hundred, op even more slaves. The 
planter's house was a large, square, frame building, painted 
white, with green shutters, with a fine portico in front. 
It was located from a quarter to a full mile back from the 
main road, and was surrounded by trees and perhaps 
beautiful gardens. Near by were the slave quarters — two 
rows of cabins facing each other — where one might see 
numbers of children and old people, mingled with as many 




Negro Quarters 
From an old print. 



THE COTTON KINGDOM 191 

dogs and chickens, all apparently living a happy, careless 
life. 

Upon closer examination these surroundings might 
show either a thrifty, well-kept appearance, or shab- 
biness and lack of care. The planter's house might be 
in good condition or it might lack paint and a sound 
roof; some windows might be broken, while doors with- 
out latches and hanging by one hinge might open into 
poorly furnished rooms. The slave cabins were gener- 
ally of logs, though neat board huts and even brick ones 
might sometimes be seen. They were perhaps twenty 
feet square and contained little except a table, a bed, 
and a few cooking utensils. These cabins were either 
neat and comfortable or unfit for even domestic animals 
to live in. One of the cabins was a nursery, where the 
babies whose mothers were working in the field were 
cared for. 

The negroes were divided into two groups — house 
servants and field hands. The former were numerous 
in and about the mansion and the other buil'dings near 
by, one of which was the kitchen. Sometimes the house 
servants were neat in appearance and prompt and orderly 
in doing their work. Often they were slovenly and lazy, 
and had to be constantly scolded and threatened to make 
them attend to their duties. 

All the slaves who were not house servants and had 
no special tasks, such as sewing or carpentry, were 
counted as field hands. Children over twelve years of 
age were expected to do some work, but this was meas- 
ured out to them in small amounts at first and gradually 
increased as they grew older. In the case of the old 
people, the amount of their work was lessened as they grew 



192 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

older, and finally they were allowed to stay about the 
cabins, where they were given such small jobs as they 
were able to do. 

The field hands were roused before daybreak upon 
summer mornings by the ringing of a bell. They were 
obliged to cook their breakfasts and be in the field by 
sunrise or a little later. Here they were divided into 
''gangs," each in the charge of a "driver." The driver 
went into the field before them and divided it into plots, 
each of which was a "task" for one slave — that is, the 
amount that he must finish during the day. If the work 
was hoeing cotton, a certain number of rows was re- 
quired, varying from one-half an acre to an acre. The 
driver, if harsh, generally had a whip in hand, which he 
flourished and sometimes applied. His voice was con- 
stantly raised to scold, threaten, or urge the work along. 
Upon another plantation, on the other hand, there might 
be a driver whose methods were not severe in any degree. 

Plows and hoes were almost the only implements used 
on the plantation. These were heavy and clumsy. No 
other kind could be used, for as one of the planters said 
to a Northern visitor, "Such hoes as you use at the North 
would not last a negro a day." The plows were drawn 
by mules or oxen : horses could not stand the rough treat- 
ment and lack of care which they received from the 
common field hands. 

One must not expect to find the work moving very 
fast during the hot summer mornings. The slaves had 
nothing to gain by working hard. They let their hoes 
fall in a Kstless manner and wasted much time turning 
the corners. At noon, dinner was brought to the field 
and usually two hours were allowed for rest, unless it 



THE COTTON KINGDOM 193 

was the busy season. After the nooning the work con- 
tinued until sunset. The slaves might then go to their 
cabins and cook their suppers. Each cabin had a fire- 
place where a huge fire that gleamed through the cracks 
between the logs of the cabin walls was soon burning. 
Each slave had for rations a peck of meal and three or 
four pounds of meat, generally bacon, each week. A 
little salt and sugar were added to this, and sometimes 
molasses. One suit of clothes (shirt and pantaloons) for 
winter and two for summer were given to each man. 

Every negro family had a small patch of ground about 
its cabin in which to raise vegetables, and there was a 
chicken yard also. Often the slaves were allowed to sell 
vegetables, eggs, and chickens, and thus to earn money 
for themselves. This might be spent for fineries, or in 
some cases it went for liquor. 

On Saturday, for either whole or part of the day, the 
slaves were released from field work and might work for 
themselves. In many cases they used this time and 
Sundays in which to earn money for themselves by hiring 
out and doing odd jobs. There were many instances 
in which slaves purchased their freedom and that of their 
famihes with money earned in this way. 

The amount of work done in a day by the slaves is 
generally thought to have been about one-half that done 
by hired white laborers. But much depended upon the 
overseer of the plantation. If he was paid a salary, he 
might be easy with the slaves, in order to avoid trouble 
and to prevent complaints from getting to the master. 
But if the amount of his pay depended partly or wholly 
upon the crops, he would drive the hands, and if the 
master was absent from the plantation during the season, 



194 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the slaves might suffer severely in consequence. It was 
very hard for planters to get good overseers. They were 
usually young men who wished to earn money and get 
a start toward farming for themselves. They seldom 
stayed on a plantation more than a few years at a time. 

As a rule, some whipping was necessary in order to 
get good work from the slaves. They were very lazy 
and used all kinds of excuses to escape their tasks. They 
often feigned sickness in such skillful ways as to deceive 
even the physician. Some planters commanded that 
slaves who did not complete their tasks should be flogged 
at the end of the day. Others would not permit this, 
and ordered the overseers and drivers to so lay out the 
tasks that the slaves could easily accompHsh them. 

Overseers were usually ordered to treat the slaves well 
and to keep them in good condition for work. The 
Hmit to the number of lashes that might be apphed was 
sometimes fixed — it might be as low as fifteen or as high 
as fifty or more. 

The condition of their clothing and cabins was in- 
spected weekly. On Sunday morning there was roll 
call of the slaves. None was allowed to be absent from 
the plantation at any time without a written order from 
the master or overseer. The slaves were allowed, and 
sometimes obliged, to attend religious services on Sun- 
day, and they frequently had their own preachers and 
conducted their own exciting services. 

Did cotton production with slave labor pay well? 
Yes, on the large plantations; and when the price was 
good the profits were very large. On the other hand, 
when the price was low or the crop failed the loss was 
very heavy. Here was one difiiculty with the system: 



THE COTTON KINGDOM 



195 



with slave labor the planter could not lessen his expense 
or turn to other crops. He was compelled to keep about 
the same number of hands and he must raise cotton. 
Moreover, between 1800 and i860 the value of slaves 



Ir-..^ 




^#'-iil£JM^aM 


^^iiiS 


W^^^ 


S 



Picking Cotton 

rose from $200 for a strong field hand to an average of 
$1500 or more. The interest upon this money, then, 
should be counted as a part of the cost of slave labor. 
If the slave died or ran away, this money was lost. As 
he grew older his work was worth less, and finally he 
had to be supported and cared for. There was also 
much expense in the support of the negro children and 
for the services of a physician. The food and clothing 
given to an adult slave averaged about $20 a year. 

Considering all these expenses, besides the salary of 
the overseer, and considering also that the slaves did no 
more than half work, and that they damaged, wasted, 



196 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

and stole much property, it can easily be understood 
that many planters thought slave labor more expensive 
than free labor. But even those who desired to do so 
knew not how to rid themselves of the slaves; there 
were no free laborers to hire, and the negroes, if freed, 
might become lawless and dangerous. Besides, a great 
many were actually not intelligent or industrious enough 
to support themselves at any occupation. 

Many of the planters were successful and grew wealthy; 
others bought goods upon credit and were bankrupt most 
of the time. When a good crop sold at a good price, the 
planter bought with his profits elegant furnishings for 
his house, fine carriages, handsome dresses, books, and 
music. These, and even his most common household 
furnishings, farm implements, and tools were bought in 
the North or from Northern merchants who imported 
them. It 'was fashionable, as well as agreeable, for the 
planter's family to spend the summers in Newport or 
Saratoga. Often the planter was absent from his planta- 
tion, except for brief visits, leaving it in charge of his 
overseer. Or, he might own several plantations, living 
only occasionally upon any one of them. But all the 
profits of the successful planter were not spent for liv- 
ing; with the surplus he often bought more slaves and 
more land. 

The fact that land was being constantly worn out and 
that new land for cotton culture was always sought 
kept population scattered in the South. Towns were 
few and small because there were few other industries 
besides farming. On the plantations one might find slave 
carpenters, joiners, blacksmiths, weavers, etc. But there 
were not very many men who were anxious to build 



THE COTTON KINGDOM 197 

up factories by borrowing the surplus capital earned 
by the planters. It was thought that this capital must 
go back into slaves and land in order to ''raise more 
cotton" and thus to make more money with which to buy 
more slaves and land again. 

Because population was scattered in the South, the 
people of any locahty could not afford to build good 
roads and bridges. Most of the cotton could be shipped 
down creeks and rivers to the ocean and gulf ports; hence, 
railroad building was slow. The thinness of population 
resulted also in there being few public schools; the 
planter's sons often went North to college. Churches 
and public libraries were not convenient, and newspapers 
were not plentiful. In consequence the wealthy planter's 
life lacked many of the comforts and conveniences that 
one might expect to see in the homes of those who had 
much less money to spend. 

The ill effects of having one great crop instead of a 
variety, and of having negro slave labor instead of free 
white labor, were not confined to the great planters. 
They could raise cotton at a lower cost per pound than 
the small slave holder or the farmer without slaves, be- 
cause they produced it upon a large scale. The large 
planters could therefore buy up any rich land held by 
the other farmers; hence the latter gradually came to 
own the poorer lands. They were therefore less prosper- 
ous, on the whole, than the large planters, and had fewer 
of life's comforts and luxuries. Those who had but one 
or a few slaves worked with them in the fields. On the 
whole, the slaves were treated better under such con- 
ditions than when they worked together in large num- 
bers under an overseer. 



198 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

There was a large class of small farmers in the 
South who owned no slaves. Upon them the system of 
slavery had a bad effect. It not only caused them to 
take the poorer lands and those so located — perhaps 
in the mountain regions — as to be away from the main 
lines of travel; but it seemed to take from them the 
ambition to better their condition. They saw that try- 
ing to become large planters was hopeless. They could 
make no progress by raising other crops for sale, because 
there were few markets for their produce, and very poor 
means of getting it to such markets as existed. Because 
of the sparseness of population, poor means of communi- 
cation, and lack of towns, schools, and newspapers, there 
was little to stimulate these people to be progressive and 
energetic in their farming. 

The large plantations did not set an example in scien- 
tific methods or in the use of improved machinery. The 
small farmers were, therefore, as a class, satisfied to 
raise enough corn, pork, tobacco, and cotton for their 
own use, with a small surplus with which to pay for tea, 
coffee, and sugar. Their clothing was almost entirely 
homespun, their household goods were homemade; even 
their wagons (except the Northern-made wheels) and 
harness were patched together on the farm. In fact, 
the poor-farmer class of the South lived much like the 
pioneers of the early times in the West, with the crudest 
of surroundings; but they were also without the ambi- 
tion to gain a better living, or to give their children better 
advantages. 

Under these circumstances it is not surprising that 
agriculture in the South was very backward. There 
were no improved breeds of live-stock in the cotton States, 



THE COTTON KINGDOM 199 

except among the horses on the large plantations. The 
average yield per acre of corn and small grains was very 
low. Considerable amounts of flour, meats, and hay 
were imported from the North. There were few agricul- 
tural societies, and the majority of planters and farmers 
were untouched by the ideas of improved agriculture that 
were beginning to spread elsewhere in the country. 



CHAPTER XVII 
AGRICULTURE AND THE CIVIL WAR 

We must look to the history of agriculture in this coun- 
try for one of the fundamental causes of the Civil War. 
It is possible to see, in this history, how the two sections, 
North and South, were gradually growing unlike each 
other. This was especially true after the spread of 
cotton culture. When this crop became very profitable, 
the people of the South went ahead blindly, wherever the 
land was adapted to it, putting into it the greater part 
of their time, labor, and capital. Naturally, they made 
use of the supply of laborers that was at hand — ■ that 
is, negro slaves. As with tobacco and rice previously, 
so now with cotton, the large plantations had the ad- 
vantage over the small farms. Thus cotton culture 
fastened slavery and the large plantation system upon the 
South, and kept that section, agriculturally, in a condition 
quite like that of colonial times. The small farmers 
and poor whites lived and worked their farms in very 
much the same way as the pioneers of earlier days; the 
large planters formed an aristocratic class that led the rest 
of the people in political and social life. 

In the North, on the other hand, there were small farms 
everywhere, almost all worked by their owners, who 
raised a variety of crops. Many farmers, in order to 
make the best use of their land, were led to experiment, 



AGRICULTURE AND THE CIVIL WAR 201 

to fertilize, and in other ways to adopt new and better 
methods of farming. They began to buy new machinery 
and to pay attention to the raising of stock. At the same 
time commerce and manufacturing were growing in the 
North; this gave the farmers good markets and made 
them prosperous. 

Now, the significant fact about cotton culture with 
slave labor was this: that it must constantly go on to 
fresh land in order to be profitable. There could be no 
rotation, for there was not a variety of crops. Stock 
could not be kept as a means of retaining the fertility of 
the land; for slave labor could not properly care for it, 
and there were few markets for dairy products in the 
South. It was necessary, therefore, if the great planters 
were to prosper, that they should be able to move farther 
west with their slaves when their lands became worn out 
or too expensive. This fact led to settlement beyond 
the Mississippi and to the admission of Missouri as a 
slave state in 182 1. The same need for new land was one 
of the causes leading to the annexation of Texas, and 
cotton-growing was expected to spread to California. 

It was soon discovered, however, that cotton could 
not be grown west of Texas. A few years later, in 1854, 
Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Ilhnois proposed a law 
that was enacted by Congress, under which the planters 
were allowed to take their slaves into the territories north 
of the parallel 36° 30' if a majority of the people there 
voted for it when new States were formed. This was 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which repealed the Missouri 
Compromise, mentioned in a previous chapter. Of 
course, this arrangement pleased the Southern leaders. 
They had already foreseen the time when cotton lands 



202 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

would be scarce and expensive. They did not like the 
opposition that arose in the North to Douglas's bill. 

The view of the Southern planters is expressed very well 
by one of them, who wrote in a letter to a friend in 
New York State as follows: ''What if we do want all the 
territory for our niggers? You know that we will be 
crowded here after a while, and what then? Can we 
work them to advantage if we fail to get our share of the 
uninhabited lands? So soon as they become unprofitable 
to us, we will have no use for them. The Southern 
planters are like the army worm. They are destroying 
the soil as fast as they can. Some of them have already 
worn out two farms, and by the same course you know 
our country will become poor and then we must move 
west and clear more land. Sometimes our negroes run 
away; sometimes they are badly treated; sometimes 
they treat their owners badly. I do not doubt but they 
are better off where they are well treated than if they 
were free and in New York. They cause men to commit 
sin, and they are certainly a great aggravation; but 
what could we do with them? There is not one in fifty 
that would, if free to-morrow, make a living. Some are 
even too lazy to steal. You know that I am lenient to 
mine. I give them time to make their own crops; and 
frequently I have to compel them to work them after 
planting. Then for the good of the slaves, I say, let us 
carry them wherever we can make money out of them, 
so that we may never" have them settled too thickly in 
any one State." 

The Republican party was formed in opposition to this 
idea of extending slavery into new territories from which 
it had previously been excluded. This party grew very 



AGRICULTURE AND THE CIVIL WAR 203 

rapidly. The Southern leaders thought it aimed not 
only to restrict the spread of slavery, but to abolish it 
entirely. When, in the election of i860, the RepubUcans 
elected Abraham Lincoln President, the Southern leaders 
knew that the movement of slavery would be checked. 
So they determined to secede from the Union, and this 
brought on the Civil War. 

The rank and file of Confederate armies was made up 
chiefly of the small farmers of the South. Many of these 
had no interest in slavery, but they were determined to 
resist the invasion of the South by Northern armies, and 
to uphold the right of secession. W^e must now inquire, 
how did the war affect Southern agriculture? 

It had been the proud boast of the people in that 
section that "Cotton is king." They thought that the 
cotton-mill owners of the North and of England would 
not be able to do without the raw material. They ex- 
pected that by the sale of their immense cotton crops, 
of which they exported $200,000,000 worth in i860, the 
Confederate government would be able to raise taxes 
and to support armies. But, as soon as the United States 
government could get naval vessels ready, these were 
stationed outside the various ports of the South, to 
prevent merchant vessels from going out. Thus, by the 
"blockade," the exportation of cotton was prevented, 
except in small amounts that were carried out by "block- 
ade runners." The people of the South could not sell 
their cotton, and hence could not pay taxes. The Con- 
federate government could not obtain enough money, 
either by taxes or by borrowing, to support its armies. 
These facts go far to explain the defeat of the South. 

On the plantations, from every one of which the men 



204 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

and large boys went into the Confederate armies, the work 
went on as usual. The slaves were faithful to their mis- 
tresses and offered them no harm. One must realize 
that before the war not enough food products had been 
raised in the South to supply its needs. Now that the 
supply from the North was cut ofi, there was great suffer- 
ing, especially in the cities. On some plantations it was 
agreed to raise less cotton and more corn. Of course, 
the supply of Northern manufactures, and of coffee, tea, 
and sugar was cut off also. So the women wore homespun 
dresses and coarse leather shoes. They made ''coffee" 
of peanuts and potatoes, and ''tea" from blackberry and 
holly leaves. Often, the women and children at home, 
as well as the* soldiers at the front, suffered keenly from 
hunger and cold, as the dreadful war shut the South off 
more and more from the rest of the world. 

What was the condition of agriculture in the North 
during the war? When cotton goods became scarce, 
more flax and hemp were raised. For use instead of 
cane sugar, people made more maple sugar, and they 
increased the supply of honey by keeping more bees. 
They also tried to raise sugar beets, but were not success- 
ful. Because of the high price of sugar, a new product — 
sorghum — which had been introduced a few years earlier, 
was raised in the Northwest. From it was made a sirup 
that took the place of sugar. 

The proportion of farmers going into the army was 
not so large in the North as in the South, for the North 
was more populous. But on many farms, when the men 
left, the burden of work fell upon the women, aided by 
the boys and girls. Many women did not hesitate to go 
into the fields to do the men's work. Said one girl, who 



AGRICULTURE AND THE CIVIL WAR 



205 



was binding grain, "I tell mother that as long as the 
country can't get along without grain, nor the army 
fight without food, we're serving the country just as much 
here in the harvest field as our boys are on the battle- 
field — and that sort o' takes the edge off this business 









«t^/< 



Women Working in the Fields in War Time 
Sketch by Thomas Nast, in F. B. Goodrich, The Tribute Book. 



of doing men's work, you know." A missionary living 
in Kansas wrote as follows: "Yesterday I saw the wife 
of one of our parishioners driving the team in a reaper; 
her husband is at Vicksburg. With what help she can 
secure and the assistance of her little children, she is 
carrying on the farm. In another field was a little boy 
of ten years; and in another a girl of about twelve." 
In the course of their work the women cut the hay and 
grain, and bound and threshed the wheat and oats, 
besides chopping and hauling wood and building fences. 
Several conditions helped Northern farmers to remain 
prosperous during the war. First, the army needed 
enormous amounts of food; the demand for uniforms 



2o6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

and blankets greatly stimulated the production of wool; 
and quantities of hay and feed were needed for army 
horses and mules. In consequence, the prices of agricul- 
tural products were good. Second, before and during 
the war many thousands of immigrants, chiefly Germans 
and Irish, settled in the North; these immigrants added 
somewhat to the labor supply, and many took farms for 
themselves. Third, the newly-invented farm machinery, 
described in Chapters XIII and XVII, enabled the far- 
mers to accomphsh much more work than could have been 
done otherwise. In 1863 the loyal States raised as much 
wheat as had been raised by the entire country four years 
before. In fact, it has been said that the reaper decided 
the Civil War, for it enabled the farmers to raise the grain 
that made them prosperous and able to pay taxes. 

During some of these years great quantities of grain 
were shipped to England, when the crops in that country 
were short and when the danger of European wars threat- 
ened to cut off the supply from other places. The South 
had expected that, when the blockade cut off the supply 
of cotton from the great mills of England, the govern- 
ment of that country would take some decided action 
favorable to the South. Indeed, this came near being 
the fact. But England knew that in case of war with 
the United States, she would cut off her own supply of 
wheat; this, among other things, made her hesitate. 

In the midst of the war (1862) Congress enacted a law 
that has had great influence upon our agriculture, namely, 
the Homestead Law. Instead of requiring the payment 
of $1.25 or more an acre, this act gave land/r^e to settlers 
who would live upon it for five years. Any citizen (or 
person who had declared his intention to become a 



AGRICULTURE AND THE CIVIL WAR 207 

citizen) over twenty-one years of age was entitled to 
160 acres. Soldiers could deduct from the five years 
their term of service in the army. 

It will be remembered that under previous land laws 
(see pp. 1 1 2-1 14) the government had sold its land to 
settlers, the idea of giving it away having met strong 
opposition. The question had been debated in Congress 
at various times for forty years. Some opposed the 
free land pohcy because they thought the government 
needed the revenue; others because, they said, it en- 
couraged undesirable immigrants. Before the Civil War 
free homestead bills had been opposed by Southerners, 
because they saw that such a law might stimulate the 
settlement of Northern farmers in the West; and thus 
'^free territory" would become populated and ask for 
admission into the Union faster than ''slave territory." 
President Buchanan had vetoed a bill that required the 
payment of only twenty-five cents per acre. After the 
Southern members had withdrawn from Congress, the 
law providing for free homesteads was passed without 
difficulty. 

While the war was in progress 2,500,000 acres were 
given away under the Homestead Law; this made over 
15,000 farms of 160 acres each. New railroads were 
built farther west, and thus the new crops furnished the 
manufacturing cities, the armies, and Europe with 
abundant food. During the same years the cheap lands 
that had been granted to railroads were also put up for 
sale. 

It is also important in this connection to know that 
during the decade preceding the Civil War railroads 
had been built as far west as the Mississippi River at 



2o8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

several points. When, therefore, the lower Mississippi 
was closed to navigation and the Northern farmers lost 
their Southern markets, these east-and-west lines were 
the means of carrying their products to the Atlantic 
coast cities. There could be little of such want and 
suffering in the North as existed in the South while these 
influences were at work helping to make men prosperous. 
Enough has been said to show how important our 
agriculture was in bringing about the conditions that 
caused the Civil War, and in helping to determine which 
side should be victorious. North and South became 
enemies largely because of the different industrial systems 
that prevailed in the two sections. As time went on, the 
agricultural system of the North was bound to come 
more and more into conflict with that of the South. 
Moreover, the war showed clearly the weakness of South- 
ern agriculture, as it was then conducted; while agricul- 
ture in the North strengthened the Union forces and 
enabled them to prevail. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 

As the farmers of the North Central states moved into 
the ''oak openings" and out upon the broad prairies, 
wheat soon came to be their principal crop. There were 
several reasons for this, the first being that the soil and 
cHmate were naturally adapted to wheat. The prairie 
fires had left behind ashes that furnished the soil with 
phosphates. Then, too, Httle labor was required to 
raise a crop Kke wheat, that needed no cultivation. This 
crop was easily handled by machinery, both during and 
after the harvest. The wheat might be used immediately 
on the farm; or it could easily be kept for a good market. 
In the early times of prairie settlement, wheat usually 
commanded a good price in cash. Indeed, it often took 
the place of money. When the farmer had stored his 
wheat in a warehouse, he received tickets that were as 
good as cash. It is not strange, therefore, that wheat- 
growing spread very rapidly through the Western states. 

Land was cheap, and after the Homestead Law, cost 
practically nothing. The reaper and thresher enabled 
farmers to cultivate large fields, while the railroads reached 
far to get the golden harvests. In fact, the amount that 
could be raised was limited only by the amount that 
could be harvested before it spoiled in the field. 

But the back-breaking work of binding by hand was 
slow and tedious. This fact led many inventors to work 



2IO AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

upon improvements that would enable the farmer to 
harvest his grain more rapidly. Finally, in 1858, two 
brothers, C. W. and W. W. Marsh, living near DeKalb, 
Illinois, patented the ''Marsh Harvester." Two men 
were stationed upon this machine to bind the grain as 
it was cut and dehvered to them upon a table from an 




The Marsh Harvester ^ 

At the right are seen the platform upon which the binders stood, 
and above it, the table where the grain was bound. 

endless apron. Of course, the inventors had the usual 
struggle to introduce their new machine. On one occa- 
sion, in order to convince some doubters, the inventors 
allowed a girl to bind on the machine to show how easily 
it could be done. Before this, it required from four to 
six men to bind by hand and to shock the grain cut by 
a reaper, at the rate of ten or twelve acres a day. Now, 
two men and a driver, the latter often a boy or a woman, 
could do nearly as much work in the same time. So the 
wheat fields expanded still farther. 

But inventors were not satisfied until they could 
make the reaper itself bind the grain. In 1858 John F. 

^ From C. W. Marsh, "Recollections 1837-19 10." Farm Implement 



THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 211 

Appleby of Palmyra, Wisconsin, then a boy eighteen 
years of age, made the model of a machine that would 
tie a knot. But he went to the war before he applied 
his idea to the binding of grain. After the war, binders 
that used wire for holding the sheaf were patented, and 
quite generally adopted in the West. But they were 
not satisfactory. The wire was too expensive. Threshers, 
too, found great difficulty in cutting the wire bands and 
keeping them out of the threshing machine, where they 
did much damage. Further, in spite of the best of care, 
pieces of wire got into the grain, causing damage to the 
mills and injury to the stock that ate the straw. Hence 
there was a great demand for a binder that would use 
twine. In 1878 Appleby finally succeeded in 
placing upon the market his "twine binder." 
Parker and Stone, of Beloit, Wisconsin, made 
the first of these machines. One man driving 
the machine could accompHsh all that eight 
men had formerly done with the reaper. So, 
the wheat fields became still more vast. It 
would now be impossible, without this ma- 
chine, to reap the enormous harvests of our Appleby's 

ITrr , . . KNOTTER 1 

Western prairies. 

All the influences that have been mentioned tended to 
keep the wheat belt moving westward through Illinois, 
Wisconsin, and Iowa, on to Kansas and Nebraska, and 
Minnesota and the Dakotas. Other forces worked toward 
the same result. These Western farms were larger than 
those in the East, so the improved machinery (steam 
plows, twine binders, etc.) could be used to better ad- 
vantage. That is, a farm could be large enough to keep 
^ Courtesy F. B. Swingle, The Wisconsin Agriculturist. 




212 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

a complete outfit of these machines busy during the 
season when each could be used. In the older States, 
farms had been laid out before these inventions were 
made practical, and were consequently smaller. Their 
owners could not afford to buy the best machinery. 




Area of Wheat Production in i860 ^ 
The total crop had doubled since 1840. 

The rapid building of railroads to the West also helped 
to urge on the movement of the wheat belt. The fact of 
distance from the markets of the East and of Europe now 
made less difference, because wheat is a product that can 
be kept for months and that will bear carrying long 
distances. Because it has also higher value in small 
bulk than the other grains, the payment of freight charges 
affects it less. The Western railroad companies received 
from the United States government great grants of land 
to aid them in the expense of construction. These lands 

^ This and the three maps that follow are reproduced from the I. H. C. 
Almanac, igii, with the consent of H. C. Taylor. 



THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 



213 



they offered for sale at low prices. Besides issuing much 
attractive advertising matter, the companies sent agents 
among the farmers in the older states, to induce them to 
go West. They ran homeseeker's trains and in other 
ways encouraged the settlement of the tracts through 
which their new lines were built. 




Area of Wheat Production in 1870 

In addition to the new farm machinery already men- 
tioned, two improvements in methods of grinding wheat 
into flour had great influence upon the history of wheat in 
the United States. Throughout our history, until this 
time, most of the flour was made in small ''gristmills" 
scattered by thousands over the country. Wherever the 
pioneer farmers settled, there went the miller. He ran a 
dam across a rapid creek and soon had his mill-race dug 
and his water-wheel turning. The wheel turned the mill- 
stones that ground the farmers' ''grist." The stones were 
set close together and were revolved rapidly so as to 




214 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

make as much flour as possible in one grinding. But 
there was a serious fault in this process. Between the 

outer ''bran" coats of the 
wheat kernel and its inner 
starchy heart are layers con- 
taining gluten that is excellent 
for food. This material was 
Surfaces of Millstones not ground into the flour by the 
iuXT^i::'!:Z:!ZT:u: mmstones, but came out in the 

the kernels of grain. The ''middlings," which also COn- 
smooth surfaces between the ^ . , , , i i i r 

furrows crushed the pieces into tamed much bran, and sold for 

meal. The grain was fed into ^ low price. How COuld this 
the center oi the stones and the ^ 

meal ran out to the edges along valuable material be saved? 

urrows. r^j^^ difficulty was solved by 

Mr. E. W. LaCroix, a Frenchman, who got ideas upon this 
subject from his native land. He was employed at Min- 
neapolis and in 1870 made a middlings "purifier" that 
revolutionized the milling process. The first grinding was 
now made so that as Httle flour and as much middlings as 
possible would be ground. The middlings were next put 
through the purifier, in which they were sifted, an air blast 
being used to separate the bran from the particles of good 
material. Then the middlings were ground again. By 
several regrindings much more good flour was obtained 
than previously had been the case. This was called the 
gradual reduction process. 

But a still greater effect followed. By the old process, 
winter wheat had made the best flour and had been 
chiefly used. This was because spring wheat flour when 
made in one grinding contained dark particles, and the 
flour made dark, and often sticky, bread. The purifier 
now enabled the millers to make fine white flour from 



THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 215 

hard spring wheat. This was especially favorable for 
Minnesota and Dakota farmers; for here spring wheat 
was the principal crop, because winter wheat was in 
danger of being killed by the extremely cold winters when 
there was little snow, or when the fields were blown bare by 
the high prairie winds. This invention, then, greatly in- 
creased the value of Minnesota and Dakota spring wheat. 

It is interesting to note that LaCroix, like several other 
inventors whose stories have been told, got no money 
for his ingenuity. Other men patented similar machines, 
and he was unable to realize the reward that he deserved. 

Another improvement in milling came at about the 
same time. This was the use of rollers instead of stones 
for crushing the kernels of grain. The idea was adopted 
from Hungary by the Minneapolis millers, Pillsbury, 
Washburn, and others. They simplified the foreign ma- 
chinery. At first glass, porcelain, and marble rollers were 
tried; and finally the modern steel roller came into use. 

In the ways described it was found that the hard 
spring wheat of the Northwest could be made to yield 
the best ^'patent" flour. This fact gave an immense 
stimulus to the movement of farmers into Minnesota. 
There the broad prairies came under the plow with great 
ease. Said a paper in 1877, "The grand land craze 
caused by the immense yield of wheat in Minnesota does 
not abate, but on the contrary increases daily. . . . 
People appear to be coming from all parts of the Union 
to get a slice of Minnesota lands." 

The progre^ of wheat-raising did not stop here, but 
swept onward into the great Red River Valley of Dakota. 
The rich, level land of this valley could not be excelled 
for wheat production. Besides, the climate was well 



2i6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

adapted to this product. While the summers are short, 
the days are very long, owing to the high latitude; this 
gives a total amount of sunlight that is favorable for 
ripening the grain. Further, the nights are cool, and 
during the period when the kernels are maturing there is 
not such intense heat as there is farther south. The 
extremely cold winters cause the frost to penetrate deep, 
and during its gradual thawing in the spring the soil re- 
tains its moisture, to the advantage of the growing crop. 
For these reasons wheat became the single great crop of 
this region. 

The question then occurred to some, why not raise it 
upon a larger scale, and so make its production still more 
profitable? In the East a farm would be thought large 
that contained an entire section (640 acres); but farms 
in the Red River Valley of Dakota that contained one, two, 
or three sections were called ''small" after the develop- 
ment of the ''bonanza" wheat farms. Thousands of 
acres were included in each of these great farms. The 
immense fields were plowed by a dozen or a score of 
sulky plows driven in a squad. The seeding was done in 
the same manner. When harvest time came, a score of 
self-binders, of the latest improved type, circled like a 
fleet of ships around the sea of ripened grain. While in 
1880 Dakota produced less than three million bushels of 
wheat, by 1885 its product was thirty-eight million, and in 
1887 it was more than sixty- two million bushels. The 
most famous of the "bonanza" farms was the Dalrymple 
farm, in which 55,000 acres were included. It was divided 
into tracts of about 2000 acres. Each tract had a 
superintendent, separate buildings, machinery, and ac- 
count books. 



THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 217 

Before many years it was discovered that these great 
farms were not as economical as smaller ones. As more 
people flocked into Minnesota and Dakota, land be- 
came more valuable. As its price advanced the farmer 
felt that he had more money invested in his land, and 




Area of Wheat Production in 1880 

that he must therefore get a greater yield from it. He 
knew that, in order to realize this greater profit, he must 
cultivate more carefully and must add stock and vary 
his crops, so as to keep the land in good condition. The 
small farmer could do this better than the large farmer. 
This was partly because the former, in tilling his o\Vn 
fields, and managing other parts of the farm work, took 
more pains and looked after the details better than the 
hired laborers of the large farms. So it came about that 
the small farmers could afford to buy parts of the bonanza 
farms and the latter were broken up. 



2i8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

One effect of the great farms of the Northwest may be 
seen in the development of machinery. The sulky plow 
had been invented earlier, but it was first extensively 
used upon the Western wheat fields. For these fields, 
too, manufacturers made gang plows, disk plows and 
harrows, twelve-foot seeders, and large steam threshing 




Area of Wheat Production in 1890 

machines. Grain elevators came into use in the wheat 
region and saved the farmers the expense of building 
granaries for themselves. 

Let us now look in another direction to see the progress 
of the advancing line of farmers in Kansas and Nebraska. 
In Chapter XI it was told how hardy pioneers, mainly 
from Kentucky and Tennessee, advanced up the valleys 
of the Missouri River and its tributaries. As early as 
1830 the frontiersmen had reached its great bend on the 
western border of the State. For twenty years they did 
not venture beyond into the region we know as Kansas. 



THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 219 

There were several reasons for this. In the first place, 
this was "Indian Country." The tribes living east of 
the Mississippi had one after another been persuaded 
or forced to give up their hunting grounds and to take 
others in the Far West. Another reason why the spread 
of population was checked at this point was the remark- 
able tradition that between the Missouri River and the 
Rocky Mountains the country was unfit for habitation! 
Here lay the "Great American Desert" that is shown 
on the maps of those days. This fiction had its rise in 
the reports of travellers who crossed the plains, especially 
in the account given by Maj. Stephen Long, who made 
the journey in 1819-1820. He prophesied that this 
region would certainly be a barrier to all further spread 
of our population, and he argued that this would be a 
good thing for the country. Other strange stories were 
believed: that the prairies where no trees grew would 
not support grains; that the soil was sandy and full of 
pebbles, like that of a desert. 

But eastern Kansas was entered in the early fifties, and 
it is at this time that we learn of the great debate over 
the organization of Kansas and Nebraska as territories. 
The Kansas-Nebraska bill, opening all this region to farm- 
ers who had slaves, became a law in 1854. Its result 
was to hasten the coming of both Northern and Southern 
men, each group eager to outvote the other on the 
question of slavery; for, it will be remembered, this 
question was to be left to a vote of the people. The New 
England Emigrant Society sent settlers from the North 
to Kansas and aided them to pay their expenses. This 
society also furnished leaders and helped in the estab- 
hshment of stores, mills, and small factories. In spite 



220 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

of this encouragement many Northern emigrants to 
Kansas became discouraged, and some returned to the 
East. 

From Missouri came some farmers and a few planters 
with their slaves; but there were '' border ruffians" 
also, who came only to vote and to terrorize the ''free 
men." These two factions came to blows, and bloodshed 
and the burning of towns resulted. When the Civil 
War began, many of the Kansas settlers entered the 
army. Emigration there was checked, and no progress 
was made for several years. 

After the war, the movement of farmers to Kansas 
and Nebraska became very rapid. By deducting their 
term of service from the five years' residence required, 
soldiers could get homesteads quickly. Railroad building 
was making rapid progress in these states, and the com- 
panies were holding out strong inducements to settlers. 
The latter were nearly all poor people, who came with 
few tools and implements and little household furniture. 
Many lived for the first years in "dugouts," instead of 
in log cabins, for timber was not so plentiful as it was 
farther east, and the prairie sod was thick and tough. 
In building a dugout, an excavation about 12 by 14 feet 
in size was made in the side of a hill. In each corner 
was set a heavy forked timber, and poles were laid upon 
these, across the four sides. Split logs or lumber were 
then laid upon the poles, upon which the thick sod rested 
and formed a sohd roof. Sometimes a piece of canvas 
was stretched beneath to form a ceiling. The floor 
might be of puncheons, or of dirt pounded hard and 
covered with corn husk mats. The sides of the dugout 
were built up of sod, though the front was often of logs 




THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 221 

or stone. Not infrequently the entire hut was built on 
the level prairie with sides and roof of sod. 

In these temporary homes, with homemade furniture 
and few comforts, many a prairie farmer and his wife be- 
gan their struggle for a 
better life. Soon the 
dugouts gave place to 
neat white farmhouses. 
For crops were abundant; 
the ''sod" or ''breaking" 
crop of wheat or corn A Sod House 

often paid for the land. Then, because there was little 
clearing to be done, the farmers enlarged their acres 
rapidly, and soon became well-to-do. Like their brothers 
of the North Central states, the Kansas or Nebraska 
farmers of the seventies broke hundreds of thousands of 
acres of wild land each year and sowed them to wheat. 
These were the years of the great Kansas "boom." 
The success of the early comers gave rise to exaggerated 
reports of the ease with which any farmer might get rich, 
so the settlers swarmed out upon the prairies in increas- 
ing numbers. 

But all was not ease and plenty on these western 
prairies. In no other large section of the country, per- 
haps, have farmers suffered so many afflictions. As 
elsewhere, the Indians were sometimes troublesome. 
Both before and after 1870 there were sudden attacks and 
massacres, many farmers and their families losing their 
lives. Then there were the prairie fires and the terrible 
winter blizzards, which not only brought serious damage 
to stock and crops, but also entailed much suffering and 
loss of human life. The years of drought that came at 



222 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



different periods ruined and discouraged thousands of 
farmers. For weeks at such a time the sun burned 
from a cloudless sky; a scorching wind made the 
grain wither; the leaves of cornstalks curled and 
turned brown; and the grass dried on the parched 
and cracked prairies. 




Rocky Mountain Grasshopper or Locust 



Perhaps the most dreadful affliction was the plague of 
locusts, or grasshoppers (1874). Out from their breeding 
places in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains they came 
in clouds that darkened the sun. They settled down upon 
fields, woods, and pastures, leaped over streams and 
rivers, swept into every fertile place, and everywhere 
left a desolate waste behind them. There was nothing 
left for man or beast to live upon! Hastily the family 
and the household goods of the poor man who could not 
afford to buy food were bundled into the canvas-covered 
moving wagon that perhaps had brought them to their 
Western farm, and the long journey ''back home" was 
begun. Supplies were sent from the East to support 



THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 223 

many of those who stayed. Such were some of the 
hardships of pioneer Hfe on the great plains. 

What a story is this — the march of wheat halfway 
across the continent! In 1800 Washington's plantation 
was in the greatest wheat-producing region of the coun- 
try. In 1825 this region was still in the East, stretching 
from the Mohawk Valley, in New York, southward along 
the mountain valleys of Pennsylvania and Virginia. By 
1850 it had well started upon its rapid journey across 
the Ohio River Valley and the plains beyond. In the 
decade of the Civil War it leaped the "desert" and 
mountain barrier, and California and Oregon also began 
to be centers of wheat growing. Next, the prairies of the 
Far West responded to the touch of the plow, and such 
a golden stream of wheat as never before had been dreamed 
of began to flow eastward along the railway arteries to 
the hungry peoples of the East and of Europe. 



CHAPTER XIX 
HARD TIMES FOR FARMERS 

The rapidity with which the West was settled is the 
most noticeable fact about the period of our agricultural 
history that includes the two decades following the close 
of the Civil War. The effect of railroads, free lands, 
and open prairies was to make the farmer's frontier move 
across the Western states ten times as rapidly as it had 
moved across the wooded region behind. Thousands of 
immigrants from Europe flocked to the New West. It 
is at this time that the stream of Scandinavian immi- 
grants became particularly large. There are in the 
Dakotas whole counties that were almost completely 
settled by farmers within a single year. 

On these prairies the farm homes were scattered wide 
distances apart. A comparison with rural conditions 
elsewhere will aid us to understand the situation. 

''The European farmer lives in a village, where con- 
siderable social enjoyment is possible. The women 
gossip at the village well, and visit frequently at one 
another's houses; the children find playmates close at 
hand; there is a school, and, if the village be not a very 
small one, a church. The post wagon, with its uniformed 
postilion merrily blowing his horn, rattles through the 
street every day, and makes an event that draws people 
to the doors and windows. The old men gather of summer 
evenings to smoke their pipes and talk of the crops; 



HARD TIMES FOR FARMERS 225 

the young men pitch quoits and play ball on the village 
green. Now and then a detachment of soldiers from 
some garrison town halts to rest. A peddler makes his 
rounds. A black-frocked priest tarries to join in the 
chat of the older people, and to ask after the health of 
the children. In a word, something takes place to break 
the monotony of daily life. The dwellings, if small and 
meagerly furnished, have thick walls of brick or stone 
that keep out the summer's heat and the winter's chill. 

''Now contrast this life of the European peasant, to 
which there is a joyous side that lightens labor and 
privation, with the life of a poor settler on a homestead 
claim in one of the Dakotas or Nebraska. ... On every 
hand the treeless plain stretches away to the horizon 
Hne . . . the new settler is too poor to build of brick or 
stone. He hauls a few loads of lumber from the nearest 
railway station, and puts up a frail Httle house of two, 
three, or four rooms. ... In this cramped abode, from 
the windows of which there is nothing more cheerful in 
sight than the distant homes of other settlers, just as 
ugly and lonely, the farmer's family must hve. . . . 
Each family must Hve mainly by itself, and life, shut up 
in the little wooden farm-houses, cannot well be very 
cheerful. A drive to the nearest town is almost the 
only diversion. There the farmers and their wives 
gather in the stores to enjoy a Httle sociabiHty." ^ 

It is not surprising that under these circumstances life 
was barren; that farmers nursed their grievances, and 
that many women, particularly those from the farm 
villages of foreign countries, suffered much from home- 
sickness. 

^ E. V. Smalley, in Atlantic Monthly, 72:378. 



2 26 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

Reasons have been given elsewhere why the principal 
crop at first in the Middle and Far West was wheat. 
What were the results of this excessive wheat raising? 
In European countries grain growers suffered severely 
from American competition. One can readily see, also, 
how the cheap Western wheat and fiour took away the 
profits of Eastern farmers. The New England, New 
York, and Pennsylvania farmers now turned to raising 
other crops, such as fruits and vegetables, or to dairying. 
Many landowners abandoned their farms and moved 
to the cities, where factories were growing rapidly, and 
many went to the West. 

Like the tobacco and cotton growers of the South, the 
wheat growers of the West took Kttle account of the 
effect that must follow the production of a single crop for 
many years in succession upon one piece of land. But 
the time came when the land would yield only one-half 
or one-third as large crops as it originally did. As the 
wheat belt moved on, it left in its wake worn-out fields 
that made necessary more careful tillage and greater 
attention to more varied and scientific agriculture. 

Thus one good result came from the mistakes and 
misfortunes of the wheat growers. Farmers were obliged 
to study into the causes of their troubles. They organ- 
ized agricultural societies, read more agricultural papers, 
and began to learn scientific agriculture. This, of course, 
led to the conclusion that raising mixed crops in rotation, 
and, above all, dairying, were the means of salvation for 
Western farms. 

Several reasons have been cited why the farmers of 
the West were at different times meeting disappointment 
in their grain fields, and others may now be stated. 



HARD TIMES FOR FARMERS 227 

Throughout the history of our agriculture the farmers 
who settled first in a new region were quite likely, when 
a chance came, to sell their farms and move on to cheaper 
lands. A family might make several successive moves. 
These farmers did not expect to get much more than a 
living from their crops; for the real profits of their farms 
they looked to the increase in the value of their land. 
It is quite natural that careless cultivation should result 
from this condition. Moreover, many farmers ^'bit off 
more than they could chew"; that is, they took up larger 
farms than they could pay for and were disappointed in 
the expected increase in their value. 

There could be but one result when this happened, 
or when the crops failed, — debts and mortgages. During 
the "boom" times not only did farmers find it easy to 
borrow money; sometimes they were even sought out 
and persuaded to borrow by the agents of Eastern capi- 
talists, who would thus make a profit. The fever of 
speculation affected the railroads, the town builders, and 
the bankers quite as much as the farmers. Everybody 
was willing to pay too much for what he bought and all 
thought it wise to go into debt in order to make more 
money. But every '^boom" is followed by a reaction: 
failures, debts, and discouragement are the final out- 
come. It will readily be seen that such alternations 
from "flush times" to "hard times" as occurred between 
1870 and 1895 ^^^ ^^^ ^ sign of healthy agricultural life. 
In the later chapters of this book reasons may be found 
for believing that we have forever passed the time when 
these conditions can be possible in any large section of 
the country. 

In the periods of depression that have been described, 



228 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



Western farmers had other grievances that may now be 
stated. If we should study the history of manufactures 
and commerce in the period that followed the Civil War, 
we should see that these industries were progressing at 

a very rapid rate. It is 
true that they experi- 
enced ' ' hard times ' ' also, 
as the crisis of 1873 ^ 
gives evidence. But the 
farmers felt that they 
were falling behind in 
the race. 

Besides, the farmers 
generally thought that 
they were being wronged 
in several ways. They 
believed that the grain 
and cattle buyers of the 
cities were offering them 
too low prices and mak- 
ing too large profits. 
At one time when Iowa 
farmers were burning their corn for fuel it was worth a 
dollar a bushel in certain Eastern cities. Those who had 
borrowed money felt that interest rates were too high, and 
they were made bitter by the foreclosing of the mortgages 
upon their farms. They saw the government favoring 
manufactures by high tariffs that were not reduced after 
the need for them caused by the Civil War had passed. 

^ See James and Sanford, American History, 444-445. The conditions 
in agriculture and other industries referred to in the present chapter are 
also described on pp. 451-456. 



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f 


r^pat^ 


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'•^fri^^if^i^t^ 




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1j t 1 Populated I860 
j II Advance between 
' 1S6() and 1870 



The Advance of Population in 
THE West, 1860-1870 



HARD TIMES FOR FARMERS 



229 



/The greatest grievance that the farmers had in these 
years is found in the fact that the prices of their prod- 
ucts were steadily falling. This was due chiefly to over- 
production. The rapid advance of population over the 
prairie lands of the Mid- 




dle and Far West has 
been explained. This 
was encouraged by the 
free land policy of the 
Homestead Law; and it 
was further made possi- 
ble by the rapid spread 
of the network of rail- 
roads. It came about for 
these reasons that farm 
products increased faster 
than the demand for 
them. The fall of prices 
was the natural result. 

Another reason for the 
decline of prices is con- 
nected with the money 

supply of the country. During the Civil War the govern- 
ment had issued much paper money, with which it paid 
war expenses. This had fallen in value, as people hesitated 
to take it in exchange for goods; and this fact caused 
prices to rise. When the war was over it was decided to 
redeem the paper money in gold, and it became more 
valuable; that is, less of it was given for a bushel of wheat 
or corn. This meant that the prices of farm products fell 
greatly, as will be seen from the table on the following page.-^ 

1 The figures are taken from the Statistical Abstract of the United 
States for 1894. 



The Advance of Population in 
THE West, 1880-1800 



230 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



Year 


Corn 


Wheat 


Cotton 


Salt Pork 


Sugar 


Butter 


Tobacco 




per bu. 


per bu. 


per lb. 


per lb. 


per lb. 


per lb. 


per lb. 




Dollars 


Dollars 


Cents 


Cents 


Cents 


Cents 


Cents 


1870 


•925 


1.29 


23-5 


13.2 


12.6 


29-3 


11.4 


1875 


.848 


1. 12 


15- 


lO.I 


10.8 


23-7 


II-3 


1880 


•543 


1.25 


II-5 


6.1 


9.0 


17. 1 


7-7 


1885 


•54 


.86 


10.6 


7.2 


6.4 


16.8 


9.9 


1890 


.418 


•83 


lO.I 


6.0 


7.0 


14.4 


8.6 


1894 


.46 


.67 


7.8 


8.0 


4.4 


17.6 


8.5 



Many farmers felt that the money policy of the coun- 
try was being determined by a set of rich men in the 
Eastern cities, who purposely oppressed them. They 
wished the paper money of the country to be continued 
and even increased, and joined the "greenback" party 
that hoped to bring this about. But perhaps the greatest 
amount of complaint was made against the railroads. 
"Freight rates," said the farmers, "are too high; there 
is nothing left for us after the freight is paid." It hap- 
pened too often that the railroads lowered their rates for 
the cities and then made up their loss by charging high 
rates in small towns where the farmers shipped their 
grain. 

All of these grievances led to the formation of various 
farmers' organizations whose object was the curing of 
the evils that have been mentioned and the improvement 
of the social conditions of farm life. Most prominent 
among these organizations was the Patrons of Husbandry, 
or the Grange.\ This society was begun in 1867 by a 
group of government clerks in Washington, D. C, under 
the leadership of O. H. Kelley. A few local lodges were 
estabHshed in the West, and in 1869 the first State Grange 



HARD TIMES FOR FARMERS 231 

came into existence, in Minnesota. The following year 
saw similar organizations founded in Illinois, Indiana, 
Ohio, and New York. Two later years there were 
State Granges in twenty-five states. 

The original object of the Patrons of Husbandry was 
the improvement of farm Hfe, not only by the removal of 
the burdens under which the farmers felt they were 
struggling, but in other ways as well. They hoped to 
bring about better feeling between the farmers of North 
and South, after the hatred of Civil War times. It 
seemed that farmers and their families had little but the 
dull routine of their work to occupy their time. There 
was Httle to stimulate their minds or to bring variety and 
pleasure into their daily tasks. Consequently, the Grange 
(and other farmers' organizations also) undertook educa- 
tional work. Lecturers were sent out to discuss not only 
agricultural problems but also other great questions of 
the day. In some places local lodges and farmers' clubs 
continued the debates, and pamphlets were distributed 
for study. The study of agriculture was encouraged, 
and prizes were offered for good products. Agricultural 
newspapers increased in number and in circulation. 

In many places farmers tried to better themselves by 
working together in buying supplies and in selling their 
products. This is called cooperation. Societies formed for 
the purpose bought goods, such as machinery, bagging, and 
twine, in large quantities from the manufacturers at low 
prices. Such organizations also sold and shipped produce 
direct to the commission merchants of the large cities, and 
received higher prices than if they had dealt with the local 
"middleman." In many cases these cooperative societies 
were unsuccessful because they were badly managed. 



232 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

The grievances of the Western farmers were expressed 
in some states when Grange candidates were elected as 
governors and members of legislatures. The latter 
passed laws providing for railroad commissions — bodies 
of men who fixed railroad rates. These laws were too 
extreme in most cases and had to be repealed. But the 
entire movement called the attention of the country to 
the fact that railroads might, and sometimes did, oppress 
their patrons; and that therefore they should be under 
pubhc control. To this was due in part the passage by 
Congress of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Since 
then national laws have controlled the railroad companies 
more and more strictly in the matter of freight rates and 
proper accommodations for the public. 

The fall of prices that has been mentioned continued 
through the eighties, and by 1890 there was a great deal 
of discontent in the West and South. Farmers who had 
borrowed money when prices were higher were now com- 
pelled to work longer and to pay back more products 
than this money would buy at the time they borrowed it. 
There arose a number of political organizations that 
began to put up men as candidates for ofhce who were 
pledged to remove these grievances. Most prominent 
was the Farmers' AlHance. It demanded that the 
government should own warehouses where grain could 
be stored until prices were good; and that the govern- 
ment should lend money to farmers without interest. 

In 1890 a great convention of delegates from all the 
national agricultural societies was held in Florida, and 
the next year a similar convention met at Cincinnati; 
here was founded the People's Party. In the presidential 
election of 1892 this party cast more than one million 



HARD TIMES FOR FARMERS 



233 



votes. Four years later the Populists, as they were 
called, were strong enough in the Democratic party to 
control its convention at Chicago, and to bring about the 
nomination of WiUiam Jennings Bryan as the Democratic 
candidate for President. At this convention it was de- 
cided that if this party came into power it would enact a 
law providing for the coinage, at the ratio of 16 to i, of 




Election of 1896 
The shaded states were carried by Mr. Bryan, showing, in general, 
the region of agricultural discontent. 

all silver that might be brought to the mints. This 
was known "as the ''free coinage of silver" poHcy. This 
policy, it was said, would cause an increase of money 
in the country. Prices would become higher, the farmers 
would be more prosperous, and the debtors could pay 
their debts with the same amount of labor and farm 
products that the money they had borrowed years before 
w^ould buy at that time. This, it was claimed, would 
but give justice to the farmers, who were borrowers as a 



234 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

class. However, the election of 1896 was decided in 
favor of the Republicans, and the free coinage pohcy was 
not followed. The greater part of the voters felt that, 
whatever might be the justice of the farmers' claim, the 
policy would bring business disaster to other classes and 
so do more harm than good. 

Just at this time other events occurred that gave relief 
to the farmers, and there began a new era of prosperity. 
One event was the discovery of gold in the Klondike 
region. This, with the great production of gold in South 
Africa, so increased the amount of gold money in the 
world that prices began to rise. Then, too, it seemed 
that just at this time the demand for farm products caught 
up with the supply. In the East manufacturing had 
been increasing very rapidly, and many thousands of 
persons were being drawn from the country to work in 
the factories. Now, too, immigration from Europe 
became larger than before; a great many of the immi- 
grants stayed in the Eastern cities and so furnished a 
larger market for Western food products. Since 1896, 
then, the former trouble of too abundant farm products 
and too low prices for the farmer has been turned into a 
new trouble of not enough farm products and of high 
prices for the city dwellers. But this means "good 
times" for the farmers. 



CHAPTER XX 
THE RANGE AND THE RANCH 

The first region where cattle-raising was the principal 
industry was east of the Alleghanies in the back country 
and Piedmont district. Here, in colonial times, the 
half-wild cattle were herded by cowboys, who later fought 
the British in the Revolution. These were the "rough 
riders" of Marion's band and the other light cavalry 
companies that were organized on the frontier. They 
dashed upon the enemy, cut off his supply trains, and 
thus kept Cornwallis from conquering the interior of the 
Carolinas. From this region droves of cattle were taken 
as far north as the markets of Baltimore and Philadelphia. 

Wh^n farmers settled upon these grazing lands, the 
herds were taken farther west, across the mountains. 
In Kentucky and Tennessee the cattle multipHed rapidly. 
They were driven to the Virginia valleys, where they were 
fattened for the Eastern markets. Later, Cincinnati 
came to be the greatest packing city in the country. 

In the meantime another ''cattle country" had become 
stocked with thousands of wild horses and cattle. This 
was Texas, where roamed the descendants of the animals 
first brought to America by the Spanish and French 
settlers. The cattle were lean and sinewy, with small 
bones and immense horns. The horses were the small, 
shaggy, and hardy "broncos." 

On the broad plains of Texas these herds and droves 
grazed at will upon government land. This was the 



236 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

*' range." The cattle were ''rounded up" by the cow- 
boys; the calves were branded; and the steers were 
driven to the market at New Orleans. From there, 
before the Civil War, salt beef was shipped to the West 
Indies, and hides, tallow, and leather were sent to the 



.>^m»^»^ 



,-r, 



Cattle on a Texas Ranch 



^^.z 



Eastern cities. As the eastern part of Texas became 
settled, portions of the range were fenced, and thus 
ranches were formed. When the railroads were extended 
into Texas there began a great rush to its grazing grounds. 
Many more than ever before tried to get rich quickly by 
buying cattle, grazing them on the ranches, and sending 
them by rail to market. The result was that the ranches 
were overstocked and the original fine growth of grass 
was grazed out and trampled down. Many of these 



THE RANGE AND THE RANCH 237 

cattle speculators were without experience and failed to 
provide for winter feeding, so their enterprises failed. 

At this time began the shipment of cattle farther 
north for slaughter at the stockyards in Kansas City, 
St. Louis, Omaha, and Chicago. 

In the year 1864 a discovery was made that greatly 
affected this branch of agriculture. The prairies of the 
North Central states were not well adapted for raising 
wild cattle, so the droves there never became numerous. 
The reason for this is the fact that the prairie grass, 
while abundant and nutritious in the spring and early 
summer, dried up in August and, in time of drought 
especially, would not support the animals in large num- 
bers. The range and ranch cattle were not fed in winter 
and hence must subsist upon the dead grass under the 
snow. This was not possible in the central Mississippi 
Valley. The story is told that in 1864 a trader was 
driving his wagon, hauled by oxen, into the foothills of 
the Rocky Mountains. He was overtaken by a fearful 
blizzard and made a camp for himself where he might 
remain for the winter. He turned his oxen loose, expect- 
ing them to perish, as would have been the case a few 
hundred miles farther east. To his surprise, when 
spring came, the animals were found to be in better 
condition than in the fall. Their owner thus discovered 
that the dried bunch grass of the Western plains is very 
nutritious. When this was covered with snow the cattle 
ate sage brush. 

This fact led to the extension of the Texas range farther 
north. Texas became the breeding ground from which 
droves of cattle were taken northward to feed upon the 
government lands that bordered the mountains on the 



238 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

East. This region stretched from Texas to Montana — 
a strip 200 miles wide. The drive from Texas to Mon- 
tana took from four to six months, the average rate 
being fifteen miles a day. The drove was in charge of 
a captain and several cowboys, who had their wagons 
and cook, and from forty to sixty ponies. By the year 
1880 the range was supporting 7,000,000 head of cattle. 

The business of cattle herding was the most picturesque 
that agricultural industry affords. Here we find the typi- 
cal Western cowboy, whose pecuHar costume was borrowed 
in part from that of the Mexican herdsman, but whose 
spirit was that of the free frontiersman of all our history. 
He was fond of Mexican decorations upon bridle, spurs, 
and bit. He wore the leather breeches (chaparajos), 
often covered on the front with wool, the broad sombrero, 
and the high-heeled boots. After weeks or months of 
lonely life on the plains, the cowboy was apt to lose his 
self-restraint in the frontier town. Then he gambled 
and drank heavily; sometimes in his evil moments he 
''shot up the town," with more noise than damage. 
But not infrequently some fellow cowboy or the gambler 
who had wronged him felt the force of his bullets. 

Before the fencing ofT of the ranches, the range was 
free and open to any person who could buy cattle and 
hire cowboys to guard them. A group of these ''cattle 
punchers," as they were called, built a log cabin and 
stayed on the range during the winter, while the cattle 
roamed at large. Of course, the herds of different owners 
became mixed, so there was a spring round-up for brand- 
ing the calves. Each owner sent one or more cowboys 
to each of the places decided upon for a round-up, in 
order that his cattle might be protected. A camp outfit 



THE RANGE AND THE RANCH 239 

stocked with provisions was taken to the site of the 
round-up. From here every morning the men set out 
on their horses, riding many miles, and driving in the 
cattle to this central point from all directions. In the 
afternoon the cowboys rode into the herd thus collected, 
each ''cutting out" the cows with calves that belonged 




Herding Cattle on the Western Plain 

to his employer. When a group had thus been separated 
from the larger herd, the calves were roped with a lasso, 
and were thrown and then branded with hot irons. If 
this was done on the open plain it required much skill. 
It was easier work when a corral was built, within which 
the branding could take place. 

But at best the work was extremely hard, as the wild 
cattle would frequently break away and would some- 
times get into dangerous places from which they had to 
be rescued. Each man used two or three horses a day, 
and had ten or more at his command, in order that they 
might get sufficient rest. But there was Kttle rest for 
the men during the two or three months that the round-up 



240 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

lasted. Besides being in the saddle from daybreak until 
dark, they took turns in standing guard around the herd 
at night. As the round-up districts averaged some 
2000 square miles, one can easily understand that a 
great amount of riding was necessary. 

This work was not only difficult, but dangerous as well; 
for the broncos were often as wild as the cattle, and 
their "bucking," while it furnished amusement for the 
spectators, sometimes resulted seriously to the rider. 
Besides, it was necessary to ride the horses at full speed 
over all kinds of ground and through streams where holes 
and quicksands were common. 

The most trying and dangerous part of the occupation 
came when a stampede, caused perhaps by a thunder- 
storm, started the cattle upon a wild run. Whether it 
was day or night, the cowboys had to follow, and, if 
possible, head off the leaders. It was necessary after- 
ward to search for many miles to find the scattered 
animals. Such a stampede might occur on the long, 
weary "drive" from Texas northward, or when the 
cattle were being taken from the range to fattening 
grounds in Kansas, Nebraska, or farther east. At these 
points the cattle were loaded upon trains and then began 
another tiresome journey to Omaha or Chicago. At 
regular periods the cattle were unloaded and allowed to 
rest. But finally the great steers were safely penned in 
the stockyards, ready for slaughter. 

On the great cattle ranges another source of danger 
was the presence of Indians. Considerable parts of the 
Western plains had been set apart by the government as 
Indian reservations; but the Indians were not closely 
confined to them. The cowboys were not always just 



THE RANGE AND THE RANCH 241 

in their treatment of the Indians, and the latter, when 
off their reservations, revenged their wrongs upon any 
cattle or cowboys that they met. After the defeat of 
Custer in 1876, the Indians were pursued and confined 
to their reservations. 

The extension of railroads into the Far West helped to 
make stock raising a more profitable business. In 1878, 
cattle on the range were worth $8 a head; a few years 
later they were worth $12, and soon they rose to more 
than $20. Meanwhile, the quahty of the stock had been 
much improved. Shorthorns and Herefords had been 
brought to the West and soon, instead of the lean, nervous 
Texan steer that was afraid of a man who was not on 
horseback, we find the more solid beef cattle of to-day. 
At the same time the breed of mustang ponies had been 
mixed with better blood, and a larger, stronger horse was 
developed. 

This ^'boom" in the cattle business pushed it beyond 
the first ranges of the Rocky Mountains, into the valleys 
and along the ranges of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, 
and even to the states of the coast. It also gave rise to 
the '^cattle kings" of this region — men who got im- 
mense wealth from the business. Before the government 
interfered with the free use of its land by stockmen, a 
cattle owner who was becoming crowded by neighboring 
herds would fence a tract miles in extent bordering on a 
stream.^ Watering places, it may be said, are not too 

^ Fencing on a large scale, especially in a country where trees are 
scarce, was made possible by the use of barbed wire, for the invention of 
which Mr. J. F. Glidden of Illinois has the credit. Wherever the clearing 
of forests made rails and lumber scarce, barbed wire became the cheapest 
fence material. Thus the stock and dairy interests have both been greatly 
favored by this important invention. 



242 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

frequent in that dry country. Often it was merely a 
spring or a ''water hole" of which he took possession, 
but the range for many miles around was thereby made 
useless to any other cattle owner. Many were the 
fierce conflicts for the possession of these choice spots. 
When the government extended its surveys over the Far 
West, and ousted the cattleman who had thus taken 
land illegally, various other methods were used by him 
to obtain good grazing tracts. He sometimes had each 
of his cowboys take a tract of i6o acres under the Home- 
stead Law. Or, he would file claims of that amount each 
for a number of ''dummy" homesteaders. Then all 
of these claims would be transferred to his hands. 

Another method was this: in 1877 Congress passed 
the Desert Land Act, providing for a grant of 640 acres 
to any citizen, with the idea that he would make arrange- 
ments for irrigating it. It is said that this law was 
merely a device of cattlemen to get larger tracts of good 
grazing land. Stockmen also took advantage of the 
Swamp Act, under which grants of liberal tracts of land 
were made on condition of its drainage. The claimant 
in this case was made to swear that the tract desired was 
so covered with water that he had rowed over it in a 
boat; placing a boat in a wagon and driving it across 
the tract enabled some who were without conscience to 
say that they ''rode over it in a boat." By these and 
other devices, ranches that included thousands of acres 
were acquired. One cattle company had 600,000 acres, 
over 900 square miles, a tract three-fourths the size of 
Rhode Island. 

The illegal grazer also came into conflict with the 
settlers who poured into the mountain states when the 



THE RANGE AND THE RANCH 243 

railroads penetrated there. Sometimes the frontier 
farmer would be driven off, or even killed by reckless 
cattlemen, who considered that they had first right to 
the land. On the other hand, the cattlemen were often 
provoked to violence by the stealing of their stock, called 




Sheep Ranch 

''cattle rustling." Horse and cattle thieves have always 
been considered the worst of criminals on the frontier, 
so hanging was their fate when they were caught. ^' Neck- 
tie parties" was the rough Western name for the lynchings 
that took place. 

Along with the cattle business, sheep raising grew to 
large proportions in the Rocky Mountain States. In 
the summer time the mountain sides, and in the winter 
the valleys, furnished grazing grounds for the flocks. 



244 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

The work of caring for flocks containing thousands of 
sheep involved much hardship. The men and horses 
had to be on duty in the heat and dust of torrid summer 
days, and had to fight for their Hves and for the preserva- 
tion of their flocks during the terrible blizzards of winter. 
They were always assisted by their faithful and intelligent 
shepherd dogs; these knew just how and where to guide 
the straying sheep. 

As the flocks of sheep grew more numerous, their 
owners came into conflicts with the cattlemen; for the 
sheep cropped the grass so short that there was none left 
for the cattle. These conflicts often became fierce and 
bloody. The cowboys, always armed, and always ready 
to show their courage in defense of their herds, fought 
many battles. This condition lasted for some years, 
but has now almost disappeared. Then there were sheep 
diseases with which to contend. In recent years these 
have been checked by the use of dipping vats, through 
which the sheep are made to pass in order to be cleansed. 

When sheep-herding spread into the mountain States 
and the cattle business was very profitable, the natural 
result followed: there were too many cattle for the 
amount of grass. This led to the destruction of the graz- 
ing lands and therefore to a decrease in the number of 
cattle raised on the Western ranches. Then, too, the 
settlement of the country by farmers has reduced the 
amount of pasturage. The United States government 
has made vast tracts in the mountains into forest reserves; 
but in the reserves the government allows under contract 
the grazing of milHons of cattle, horses, and sheep. At 
the same time the rapidly growing city population in 
the East has increased the demand for meats. As a 



THE RANGE AND THE RANCH 245 

result, we have seen rising prices of beef on the hoof 
and consequently of steaks at the local markets. 

The business of feeding ranch cattle, and thus fattening 
them for the market, has become very great in the corn- 
growing states. But the business of packing meats has 
largely fallen into the hands of a few great packing 
houses. Their control of prices discourages the small 
farmer who tries to raise cattle for slaughter. Some, of 
the packers have been convicted by the United States 
government for combining to control the entire business 
to their own advantage. 

All these changes in the conditions that existed thirty 
or more years ago have resulted in the disappearance of 
the old, adventurous range and ranch life. In the course 
of our history, the business of grazing has moved across 
the country, always keeping somewhat in advance of 
pioneer farming, from the foothills of the Alleghanies to 
the plateaus and valleys of the Rocky Mountain system. 
In one region after another, it has given way before the 
advance of the farmer, who could make better use of the 
land. Thus, by the force of circumstances, the business 
of stock-raising has become less haphazard and specula- 
tive, and more scientific. With this change, and with 
the narrowing of the limits within which it can extend, 
it has become less picturesque, but more stable and, on 
the whole, more profitable. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE AGE OF MACHINERY 

Between the years 1825 and 1850 there came into use 
the iron plow, the threshing machine, and the mower 
and reaper, whose advent marked three great steps 
forward in the direction of modern farming. In the 
years that followed, hundreds of inventors were at work, 
and thousands of patents were granted for new imple- 
ments and for improvements upon those already in 
use. Indeed, this machinery has made greater changes 
in methods of farming than all the changes that had 
come about in the whole previous history of agriculture. 

In order to account for this great revolution, it must 
be remembered that this is the age of machinery in all 
industries. The growth of factories and the use of 
steam in transportation began somewhat before the 
general use of machinery in agriculture. But doubtless 
the latter came partly because the appHcation of steam 
to machinery in other industries was such a great suc- 
cess. There are, in addition, special reasons why men 
were encouraged to invent new machines for farm work, 
and these will be noticed as the various inventions are 
discussed. 

The improvements upon the reaper, which changed 
it into the modern self-binder, have been described in 
the chapter upon ''The Westward March of Wheat." 
This machine was further improved by the addition of a 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 



247 



bundle carrier, which drops a number of sheaves at the 
place where they are to be shocked. The use of the 
header in California has also been mentioned (see p. 183). 
This idea had been worked upon by some of the earHest 
inventors in European countries. It is practical only 




Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N. 7. 

Harvester Drawn by Thirty-three Horses 



where the climate is so dry during the harvest season that 
the heads dry on the stalk. A wagon with a very large 
box was driven by the side of the header, and into this 
the heads were thrown from an endless apron. On 
the large grain farms we now frequently find that a 
complete harvesting outfit consists of a combined header 
and thresher. Indeed, the grain is not only cut and 
threshed, but also cleaned, sacked, and weighed without 



248 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the touch of human hands. Such is the work of this 
machine as, drawn by a score or more of horses, or by 
a powerful tractor, it makes its way around the immense 
grain fields. What would the farmer of two generations 
ago have thought if he had been told that this might 
come about? 

The improvement of plows and cultivators went along 
side by side with that of grain-harvesting machinery. 
The reasons for this are that land in the West might be 
had almost for the asking; that much of this land was 
open, level prairie, easy to cultivate; and that, during 
the Civil War especially, farm laborers were scarce. 
Moreover, when railroads and factories were growing 
so rapidly and drawing men to the cities, it was quite 
necessary that machinery should be used on the farms to 
help supply the increasing demand for food in the cities. 
The interest in new machinery was kept alive by the prac- 
tice of having "tests," in which the machines made by 
different manufacturers were compared. These tests were 
generally held in connection with county fairs, and 
often proved to be exciting, as well as instructive, for the 
on-lookers. 

Yet it may be said that reapers and other farm machines 
came into use slowly. One reason for this was the fact 
that they were compHcated; consequently, it was difh- 
cult to keep them in good running order. Besides, 
farmers were not accustomed to handling machinery of 
any kind. It was necessary, when a machine was sold, 
for the dealer to send his agent to the farm to set it up 
and to teach the farmer how to use it. This, of course, 
added to the expense. In our own day farmers are 
becoming machinists to no small degree, and the expres- 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 249 

sion ''every farm is a factory" is becoming true in this 
as in other respects. 

The idea of a cultivator or ''horse hoe " had been worked 
out by Jethro Tull, in England, more than a hundred 
years before this time. When Washington was a baby 
a year old (1733), Tull pubhshed a book which he called 
Horse Hoeing Husbandry. But the first practical 
straddle-row cultivator drawn by two horses that came 
into use in this country was that patented by George 
Esterley in 1856. 

Many patents for sulky plows were granted early, but 
these were not in practical use much before the end of 
the Civil War. The three-wheeled sulky plow, one wheel 
of which is set at an angle, did not come into general 
use until twenty years later. Meanwhile, inventors 
had been at work upon gang plows and disk plows, and 
were making them a success. 

One must realize that, with regard to any of these 
inventions, it is not possible to point out the particular 
men to whom credit is due for the completed machine. 
Often scores or hundreds of patents were taken out 
upon a single machine; a few of these would prove to 
be practical. Ideas were borrowed and developed. 
Consequently, each machine went through a gradual 
growth, and in its final form was the result of study 
and experiment by many faithful workers and enter- 
prising manufacturers. 

In the history of harrows, one can find that many 
improvements have been made upon the old homemade 
frame, set with wooden teeth, or with iron spikes made 
by the village blacksmith. An advantage was gained 
when the teeth were given a backward slant, for the 



250 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

clods were then better crushed and the ground was 
smoothed. A great improvement was made when the 
frame was constructed of iron or steel, and especially 
when, after 1870, the teeth might be set by a lever at 
any pitch. Many years before this the disk harrow had 
been patented, but it did not come into general use until 
after that date. At the same time the spring-tooth 




Two- Row Cultivator 

harrow was being manufactured. Gradually, there were 
invented sulky harrows of many kinds, suited to different 
soils. These crushed, turned, and smoothed the ground 
all in one operation. There is also a ball-bearing disk 
harrow with dirt-proof oil chambers. 

The improvement of cultivators and harrows was 
stimulated by the invention and use of grain drills and 
corn planters; for these greatly increased the number 
of acres that a farmer could plant. The manufacture 
of seeders and grain drills began as early as 1840, but 
corn planters were not successful until ten years later. 
Improvements came gradually, until the present almost 
perfect machines were developed: seeders that both 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 251 

plant and cover the grain, either in straight or zigzag 
rows, spreading fertilizer at the same time; corn planters 
that drop kernels of uniform size at any interval desired, 
or plant alternate rows of corn and beans, marking the 
next row at the same time. The advantage of the check- 
rower was early recognized, and such machines were 
invented before the Civil War. 




A Light Draft Lister 

About 1880 the lister was introduced. This is especially 
useful in dry soils, plowing and at the same time planting 
the seed deep in the furrow. We now have a two-row 
lister. In the South a double moldboard plow, called 
a "middle buster," has come into use for plowing the 
hilled-up cotton rows. 

When the reaper was first invented, it was intended 
for cutting grass, as well as grain; there was no distinc- 
tion between reaper and mower. Gradually, two differ- 
ent types of machines were developed, so by 1854 there 
was a clear distinction between them. The ease with 
which grass could be cut with the mower naturally led 
inventors to seek better ways of taking care of the hay 



252 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



crop. As the mower took the place of the scythe, other 
machines were needed to take the place of the rake and 
pitchfork. The Civil War hastened inventions along 
these lines in the North, because of the great demand 
for hay with which to feed the many thousands of horses 
and mules used in the cavalry and transportation services 
of the army. The revolving horse-rake had come into 
use before the War; but a much greater improvement 
was the spring-tooth sulky rake. With this, a boy and 
a horse could do the work of many men. 

But the hay had still to be cocked and stacked by 
hand. The side-dehvery rake and the hay loader and 
hay stacker have completed the apph cation of machinery 
to this branch of farm work. Meanwhile, the hay fork 
and carrier have come into use and another hard and 

disagreeable task is being 
accompHshed quickly 
and easily. The work 
that formerly took many 
hours of back-breaking 
labor can now be done 
in as many minutes and 
with no muscular effort 
except that of driving 
horses. 

The hay tedder not 

only saves the labor 

formerly undertaken 

with a pitchfork, but it 

results in great economy as well. Grass that has become 

wet on the ground, or that has been trampled by horses, 

can be cured the day it is cut. Thus the quality of the 




Hay Loader 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 



253 



hay is improved and it is more profitable than formerly in 
moist regions. Improvements in hay balers, operated 
by horse, steam, or gasoHne power have aided greatly in 
making the hay crop of the country one of the most 
valuable that is produced. 




Corn Planter with Disk Furrow Openers 

We have seen that improved machinery made more 
rapid the westward spread of wheat raising, and that 
the cheap wheat from the grain fields of the Far West 
compelled the farmers of the Middle West to turn to 
other crops and to mixed farming. The latter found 
their greatest profit in the growing of corn as feed for 
live-stock. 

This change, in turn, hastened the invention of ma- 
chinery with which to handle the immense corn crops. 
The corn planter and the cultivator had already come 



254 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

into use, but the stalks were still cut with the corn knife, 
or were left standing in the field. The ears were husked 
by the aid of the husking peg and were broken off and 
thrown into a wagon that was driven slowly through the 
field. This work, generally undertaken after frost had 
come, brought cracked joints that were painfully sore 
to the hands of generations of farm boys. Often a canvas 
or leather ''stall" was worn to protect the hand between 
the thumb and index finger. 

The earliest of the corn machines to be invented was 
the sheller. In about the year 1850, the old method of 
scraping the ear over the edge of a shovel began to be 
superseded by this machine. One after another there 
were added such improvements as the device for separating 
cobs and kernels, the blast purifier, and the automatic 
feed. By the old hand method, a bushel or two a day was 
the usual product; now it is possible to shell several 
hundred bushels in a day. 

In the decade between 1880 and 1890 there were several 
years in which the hay crop was a partial failure; this 
was the time, also, when dairying was a rapidly growing 
industry. These two facts gave added importance to 
'the corn crop and hastened the invention of corn harvest- 
ing machinery. The idea of a corn harvester had been 
worked upon for many years. In the early fifties there 
might have been seen, in Illinois, a poor old man, a home- 
less wanderer, known as ''Father Quincy." He had 
spent his life trying to invent a machine that would cut 
and bind cornstalks. He was regarded as a "crank," 
but recent times have shown that his idea could be 
realized, though not until after hundreds of thousands 
of dollars had been spent by the manufacturers of farm 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 



255 



machinery, in making and testing several different types of 
machines. 

One of the early forms of corn cutters (about 1886) 
was a sled that had large knives projecting at a slanting 
angle, sometimes in the middle of the sled, and sometimes 
on both sides. This cut the stalks as it was drawn be- 
tween the rows. Not until ten years later did the corn 





Two-Row Sled Corn 
Harvester 



One-Row Sled Corn 
Harvester 



harvester become a practical success. Still more recently 
the corn binder and shocker have been brought to per- 
fection. While the old-fashioned corn knife enabled a 
man to cut, with the hardest labor, one or two acres a 
day, the new machines now cut and bind from six to ten 
acres a day, the man merely sitting still and driving the 
machine. It does in fact seem that, as some one has said, 
farming is about to become a sedentary occupation! 

Husking machines, upon which inventors worked for 
forty years, have been brought into practical use; and we 
also have the combined husker and shredder. 

Under the old system, corn stalks were frequently left 
standing in the field, and the cattle were turned in to 
feed upon them. The stalks soon became dry and 



256 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

lost much of their food value. Now, they can be cut 
green, with the juices still in the stalk, and can be stored 
away in the silo for winter feeding. The early frost that 
checks the ripening of the ears no longer has such terrors 
for the stock farmer, for his crop will still make good 
feed. Thus, it is estimated, a billion dollars yearly are 
saved to the farmers of the country, and the great dairy 
and stock industries are made profitable. 

These important inventions, so closely connected with 
the industries last mentioned, have helped to maintain 
the fertihty of the ''corn belt" through the increased 
use of manure. The manure spreader has encouraged 
the greater use of this fertilizer, and has made its use 
much more effective than formerly, when it was spread 
by hand. Moreover, the farmer, his "hired man," and 
the grown-up boys are rejoicing that many weary hours 
of the most disagreeable drudgery, which seemed to 
bring little result except sore muscles and discourage- 
ment, have been made unnecessary. 

The growth of the stock and dairying industries brought 
with it also the development of the windmill as a part of 
the farm's equipment. Everyone is familiar with pic- 
tures of the curious old windmills of Holland and other 
European countries — the pyramid-like houses from 
which projected the great arms carrying the ''sails." 
Such were the first windmills brought to this country by 
the early settlers. They brought also the kind in which 
the turret that carried the sails rested upon a pivot and 
could be turned in any direction, so that the sails would 
catch the wind from any quarter. This was done by 
shifting a beam, one end of which ran from the turret to 
the ground, where it rested upon a wheel. These mills 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 



257 



either pumped water or ground grain into meal. In the 
latter case, the miller lived in the house under the wmd- 

mill turret. , , . ^ ^ 

The modern type of windmill, havmg a wheel mstead 
of sails, has been developed in this country. At first it 
was found difficult so to regulate the wheel that sudden 
or violent winds would not wreck it. The invention of 
the vane that turns the wheel into the wind was the 
work of a missionary named Wheeler, who lived m north- 




Steam Traction Engine Drawing Plows, Harrows, and Seeder 



With this outfit 72 acres a day have been covered, in dry, 
hard soil, in Kansas. 

ern Wisconsin, about 1866. The original form has 
been much improved by the use of galvanized iron, or 
steel, instead of wood, both for the wheel and for the 
frame The wheel has also been made hghter and has 
been so geared that it can be driven by light wmds. 

A generation ago wind and animal power were the only 
aids the farmer had in doing the heavy work of the 
farm; and the latter is still the greatest source from 
which he gets help. But gradually steam and other 



258 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

means of producing power have been brought into use, 
and we may venture to predict that the future holds in 
store some great changes in this respect. Steam was 
first appHed to the drawing of plows on the level prairie 
farms. The early steam tractor was very heavy and 
expensive and could be used with economy only on large 
farms. It may now be seen drawing tandem a complete 
outfit of plows, harrows, and seeders; so that with every 
trip across the field a belt twenty-four feet wide is pre- 
pared and planted. Twenty or more acres a day are 
thus covered. This is an important consideration, for 
in some of the prairie lands it is desirable to plant as 
soon as possible after plowing. With a headlight on the 
tractor, the farmer is prepared to run his outfit day and 
night. Thus the use of the tractor adds greatly to the 
value of the crop. 

The steam engine was early applied to the work of 
threshing (about i860), where it gradually took the 
place of the treadmill and the sweep horse-power. With 
its recent improvements, the steam tractor now draws 
the thresher from farm to farm. The thresher is equipped 
with an automatic band-cutter and self-feeder, much to 
the relief of the crew operating the machine. And the 
farmer's son, in his turn, is much relieved to find that 
the dusty, monotonous task of stacking the straw has 
been taken from his aching shoulders by the swinging 
"wind stacker." This thresher not only cleans but also, 
on many farms, weighs and sacks the grain, making it 
ready for market. 

When the year's crop has been hauled to the railway 
station it is no longer necessary, in many places, to lift 
and carry heavy sacks, or to shovel the grain from the 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 259 

wagon box into high bins; for when the wagon has been 
drawn upon the scales it is emptied by an automatic 
dump, and a carrier takes the load just where it is wanted. 

Within the last twenty years there has been brought 
into use another source of power that is making its way 
into farm life and is destined to have great influence. 
This is the gasoline engine. It has been set to work 
turning the milk separator, the churn, the silage cutter, 
the washing machine, the sausage grinder and stuffer, 
the feed and fanning mills, and the grindstone. It 
pumps water for the stock, for the house water tank, 
and for irrigation; it saws wood, shells corn, digs post 
holes, and drills the well. It mows the lawn, and runs 
the milking machine, the vacuum cleaner, and the lathe 
in the work-shop. By its power the barn and orchards 
are sprayed with disinfectant, and the sheep are sheared. 
Granaries and silos may be built to any desired height 
and filled by means of elevators run by gasoline. Is 
there any limit to which this engine may not go in reliev- 
ing the farmer, his wife, and their helpers from wearying 
muscular effort and drudgery? 

Besides the stationary gasoline engine and the kind 
mounted upon a truck, we now have gasoline tractors, 
which not only draw loads but perform other tasks when 
not in use as tractors. The first gasohne tractors, made 
more than twenty years ago, were not very successful. 
But within the last ten years, with improvements in the 
manufacture of both the gasoline and the engine, the 
farm tractor driven by this power is proving to be both 
reasonable in price and practical. It has certain advan- 
tages over the steam tractor: it is Hghter and can be 
applied to more uses. The gasoline tractor requires no 



26o AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

time in which to ''get up steam." It is not necessary to 
employ a skilled engineer to run it — any boy can do 
that without danger, and will take dehght in his mastery 
of it. 

The gasohne tractor on the farm, then, not only plows, 
harrows, and plants the fields, doing the work of ten 
men and as many horses in a given time; but, in addition, 
it reaps and threshes the crops and hauls them to town. 




Large Gasoline Tractor — Caterpillar Type 



For the tractor may also be used as a truck; and it may 
have several boxes, so that while one is being loaded 
another is taking the trip to the railway station, and 
still another is at the station being unloaded. One can 
scarcely estimate the saving in time that this involves. 
The farmer, as well as the city dweller, is beginning to 
realize that ''time is money." 

Think, too, of the saving that results when the engine 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 261 

does the work of the horse. The latter is not only ex- 
pensive to buy, but more expensive to keep; and this 
expense continues whether he is working or not. Besides, 
much care is necessary to keep him in good condition. 
An enormous amount of farm acreage and a correspond- 
ing amount of labor are employed each year in providing 
feed for the horses of the country. The use of the engine 
on the farm makes it possible to use much of this land 
and labor in raising food for the people. 

What has been said about the use of the gasohne engine 
applies also to the electric motor, which may be used 
in running quite as many machines. There are several 
ways in which the electric current is being supplied to 
farms. The gasoline engine may develop it, or the 
farmer may have a small waterpower on his farm that 
can be used for this purpose. In some places, a group 
of farms is being supplied from a central power plant. 
Again, the electric current may be drawn from electric 
hghting and power lines that pass by the farm. There 
are hundreds of square miles in the vicinity of large 
cities where such Hnes are already available for supplying 
the current. 

Not all the multitude of newly invented machines can 
be mentioned in a single chapter. There are clover 
hullers, bean separators, and, of especial importance in 
the South, real cotton pickers. Plant setting machines 
have been in practical use for about twenty years; some 
of these water the furrow before setting the plants. 
"The potato planter would make the farmer of a genera- 
tion ago sit up and rub his eyes. It requires that the 
potato be supplied, but will do all the rest of its own ini- 
tiative. It picks the potato up and looks it over — or 



262 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

seems to — cuts it in halves, quarters, or any desired 
number of parts, separates the eyes and removes the 
seed ends. It plants whole potatoes or parts thereof, 
as desired, as near together or as far apart as the judg- 
ment of the farmer on the driving seat suggests. Having 
dropped the seed, it covers it, fertilizes it, tucks it in hke 
a child put to bed, and paces the next row with mathe- 




Transplanting and Watering Tobacco Seedlings 

matical accuracy."^ So nearly like the work of human 
hands is that accomplished by our modern machinery. 

Our study of the early farm showed that it was a 
factory as well; for in the home and small shops of the 
farm were made the clothing, implements, and food 
products that were needed. Then, with the invention 
of machinery and the growth of factories, these home 

^Scientific American Supplement, 55: 22702. 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 263 

industries one by one went from the farm to the city. 
This process was no sooner well under way, about a half 
century ago, when another began that is again making 
the farm a factory — but of a different sort. This has 
come about through the use of farm machinery. 

And what shall be said of the effects of this great 
transformation? Some of the advantages of the various 
machines have been mentioned as they were described. 
There are still several general results to be noticed. 

First, we readily think of machinery as labor saving. 
In order to realize how much lighter farm work has been 
made by machinery, compare the work required in riding 
the sulky plow, reaper, mower, or cultivator with that 
done when the farmer walked in the furrow, swung the 
scythe or cradle, and pKed the hoe. Think how the 
grain drill, the potato digger, and the corn harvester 
have taken the drudgery from farm work! Suppose, 
for an instant, that farmers were compelled to wield the 
flail and winnow grain by hand! 

It is not, perhaps, so easy to realize how much time is 
saved by the use of machinery. For example, .about 
1850 the time necessary to harvest a ton of hay was 
twenty-one hours; in 1895 it was less than four hours; 
and more recent inventions have even reduced this time. 
By the old methods it took the labor of one man for 
three hours to raise a bushel of wheat; it now takes ten 
minutes. Corn required one hour per bushel; it now 
takes twenty-four minutes. 

Machinery not only saves labor and time on the farm, 
but it also makes possible a much greater product. It 
would be entirely impossible to produce the enormous 
crops of to-day, without the aid of machinery. If they 



264 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

could be raised, they could not be harvested, even if 
every man, woman, and child in the country should turn 
out to assist. At the same time there has been a decrease 
in the cost to the farmer of producing the crops; so he 
has gained a greater reward and his hired laborers receive 
better wages. About 1830, the average daily wage paid 
on farms in this country was eighty-three cents, while 
to-day it is nearly double that amount. 

Another result of the use of farm machinery is the fact 
that crops raised by its aid are of better quality. The 
hay, corn, and small grains can be harvested quickly and 
with the least amount of injury and waste. 

Through the use of machinery, farming is becoming 
a more stable occupation. When the farmer has much 
capital invested in his business, he is less likely to change 
his location or to make radical changes in his crops. 
This keeps the supply of products more nearly constant 
and has a good effect upon the business of merchants, 
manufacturers, and others who handle or consume them. 

In the next place, the banishment of much of the 
drudgery from farm work, through the use of machinery, 
has had very beneficial effects upon the persons im- 
mediately concerned. One who is bound down to a 
dull routine of hard labor is apt to become dull himself. 
When there is little variety, and the mind finds Httle to 
interest or stimulate it in the day's work, it becomes 
narrow and slow in action. Perhaps this is one reason 
why advancement in agriculture has come so late. Farm- 
ers were engaged in an industry that, before the use of 
machinery, seemed to offer few chances for improvement; 
and so they were slow to adopt the improved methods 
when they came. 



THE AGE OF MACHINERY 265 

Now, the farmer using a machine not only does less 
muscular and more brain work, but he has more time in 
which to plan his work, and can thus better solve his 
difficult problems. Instead of using up all his energy in 
grinding toil, he has time and strength in which to set 
for himself definite aims towards which to work. He 
can keep definite records and strive to excel them. He 
can work out experiments and thus improve his methods. 

Finally, machinery, by making farm work less dis- 
agreeable, and by requiring more intelHgence, is Hfting 
the business of farming to a higher level. The farmer is 
becoming more self-respecting and respected. There is 
consequently less temptation for the boys to leave the 
farm; the management of machinery is proving to be a 
strong attraction, inducing them to stay there. 

All this means for the farmer shorter hours of work, 
more leisure, more interest in his home and in the social 
and political activities of the community. Without 
the new era of farm machinery, the new era of farm life 
that is described in a later chapter would not be possible. 



Light Farm Tractor 

This machine costs $550, and will take the place of horses on 
many small farms. 



CHAPTER XXII 
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 

It is well known that the horse did not exist in America 
when white men first came here. But geologists tell us 
that, miUions of years before, a curious animal that was 
a real horse lived on this continent. Judging from the 
skeletons that have been found in the Rocky Mountains 
and elsewhere, this prehistoric horse was about two feet 
high and somewhat resembled a fox. Originally, it had 
five spreading toes, and evidently hved in marshy land. 
During long ages the climate and other conditions in 
America gradually changed. As the land grew harder 
and the grass became shorter, the horse's neck and jaws 
became longer. Gradually, too, its legs lengthened, so 
that it could run faster. It also lost its toes — excepting 
the middle one, upon the nail of which it finally ran. 
These steps in the evolution of the early horse in America 
can be traced from fossils. On the legs of the horse of 
to-day we find the spHnts that are the remnants of the 
lost toes; the hoof is merely the nail of the middle toe 
developed to its present size. However, this first Ameri- 
can horse disappeared entirely, perhaps because of the 
coming of glaciers; and our modern horse descended from 
those brought over to America by the early colonists. 

In colonial times the horses, hke the other Hve-stock, 
were small and poor; yet they were of great consequence, 
because roads were poor and, where waterways were not 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 267 

available, horseback riding was the most common method 
of travel. In the South, where settlements were sepa- 
rated by wide distances, horses were of more importance 
than elsewhere. Thoroughbreds were brought from Eng- 
land to Virginia, and here, as well as in the Carolinas, 
the planters took much pride in their riding horses. 
Blooded horses were taken from Virginia to Kentucky, 
and this state soon became famous for the best breeds. 
At this time, too, the Narragansett pacer was a prominent 
horse. 

In all of our early history, the breeding of fine horses 
came about in connection with racing. In the decade 
before, and again just after the year 1800, there was great 
popular interest in horse racing. Often a horse from the 
South would run against one from a Northern State. It 
is said that in one race, run upon a track on Long Island, 
opposite New York City, a hundred thousand people were 
in attendance, and the purse was $10,000. At that 
time a race was run in three four-mile heats. The time 
in this case was 7:37^, 7:49, and 8: 24 for the three 
heats respectively. 

A famous stock of horses was the Morgan breed of 
Vermont, the founder being Justin Morgan (about 1790). 
A great many descendants of this horse made high records 
in running, trotting, and pulling tests. But the main 
value of the breed lay in the fact that it furnished the 
farmers of the North with a sturdy work-horse of enduring 
quality. 

Trotting races did not receive much attention in this 
country until after 1820. As with running, the popular 
idea was to see how far a horse could go at a fast rate; 
consequently, long heats were customary. One of the 



268 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



early high records for the mile is that of the horse Yankee, 
which made the time 2: 50 in the year 1806. This time 
was gradually lowered by various trotters, until, in 1867, 
Dexter was the champion, with a record of 2: 17 J. After 
1870, the idea of fast trotting in shorter heats became 
more popular, and more attention was paid to the breed- 
ing of fast horses. Consequently, there was the rapid 




Morgan IIorsk 

lowering of the trotting record, by Goldsmith Maid to 
2: 14 (1874); by Maud S. to 2: loj (1881); by Jay-Eye- 
See to 2: 10 (1889); by Sunol to 2: 08 J (1891); by Nancy 
Hanks to 2:04 (1892); by Alix to 2:03! (1894); by the 
Abbot to 2:03 (1900); by Cresceus to 2:02^ (J901); 
by Lou Dillon to 1 158 J (1903); and by Uhlan to i: 54I 

(1913)- 
There had early been trotting clubs, but after 1870 

these became more numerous, and their activities had more 

influence. It is natural that this interest in fast horses 

should have the effect of improving the grade of horses in 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 



269 



common use; and in this way the breeding of racers has 
had a beneficial effect upon our animal industry. 

The breeding of draft horses did not begin early. 
Percherons first became important about the middle of 
the last century, and the Clydesdales somewhat later. 

The story of how the first fine sheep came to America 
was told in detail in a former chapter (see p. 98). After 




Clydesdale Draft Horse 



the European wars were over (181 5), the importation of 
new breeds was very gradual. Some Cotswolds were 
brought to this country in the thirties and forties; South- 
downs and Oxford Downs still later; and afterwards 
Shropshires were introduced. The breeding of fine sheep 
and hogs was followed in certain localities before the 
Civil War. But after the year 1870 this work was given 
a great impetus through the formation of breeders' 
associations. 



270 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

Very few high grade cattle were to be found in the 
American colonies. The Dutch brought Holsteins to 
New Netherland, but the animals became mixed with 
poorer stock. Before 1800, Shorthorns were brought 
into Virginia, Maryland, and New York, and between 
1830 and 1840 there was an importing company in Ohio. 
About this time. Guernseys were brought to New Hamp- 
shire. Some Herefords were to be found in this country 
before the Civil War, but they first attracted attention 




Guernsey Cow 

at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Meanwhile, 
beginning about 1850, stockmen had begun the importa- 
tion of Jerseys. 

Breeders' associations of these, as of other farm ani- 
mals, became especially active after 1870. One reason 
for this may be found in the fact that the process of 
refrigeration, and the use of refrigerator cars and steam- 
boats, came into use about that time. The slaughter 
of animals at the great packing centers, especially Chicago, 
increased very rapidly. Fresh meats were shipped by 
carload and boatload, not simply to all parts of this 
country, but abroad as well. 

Another reason for the increase in better stock has 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 271 

been touched upon in the chapter upon Range and 
Ranch; i.e. the profitableness of ranch cattle in the 
Far West. County fairs and cattle shows also called 
attention to stock improvement. Still another reason is 
found in the growth of the dairy industry. This became 
important in the East when the grain of the Middle West 
began to undersell the crops of the Eastern farmers. 
These found dairying profitable, too, as the rapidly 
growing manufacturing cities were calling for more and 
better products. Again, dairying became important in 
the Middle West when the wheat growers of Minnesota 
and the Dakotas flooded the markets with the product of 
their broad fields, and when Minneapolis flour invaded 
the grocery stores of the entire country (see p. 215). 

The agricultural history of Wisconsin illustrates the 
change that recent times have brought to many sections 
of the Middle West. A generation ago the principal 
product of Wisconsin farms was wheat. But the wheat 
lands were losing their good fertility from long continued 
cultivation of this crop; and just at this time the com- 
petition of Minnesota and Dakota wheat began to be 
felt. The winter wheat flour of the local grist mills was 
driven out of the market by the whiter and cheaper 
Minneapolis flour. Between 1880 and 1890 the amount 
of land devoted to wheat in Wisconsin decHned nearly 
two-thirds, while the product decHned one-half. The 
farmers were obfiged to look for other crops. They 
turned from wheat to corn, oats, and barley and began 
raising hogs and cattle, with excellent results. A sys- 
tematic course of education in scientific farming was 
carried on by means of farmers' institutes. The dairy 
business was made more prominent through the efforts 



272 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



of W. D. Hoard, editor of Hoard's Dairyman. According 
to the census of 19 10, Wisconsin was the leading dairy 
state of the Union. Its butter, cheese, and condensed 
milk establishments numbered 2,630, as compared with 

1,552 in New York, the 
next in rank. Wiscon- 
sin then produced 
about one-fifth of the 
country's total output 
k of these important 
products. 

At the present time 
(191 5) the cheap wheat 
of the Canadian North- 
west is having an effect 
upon the farming in 
Minnesota and the 
Dakotas, like that 
which came about in 
the states farther east. 
Because of this competi- 
tion, and for other reasons, the farmers of these States 
are turning more of their efforts to diversified farming, 
in which dairying is very important. 

The history of processes in dairying is of great interest, 
and shows remarkable development. We may say that 
the use of machinery has completely changed this in- 
dustry within the lifetime of our grandfathers, or, per- 
haps we should say, of our grandmothers. In the early 
times, when each family supplied little more than its 
own needs, many cows were allowed to ''go dry" during 
the winter, and there was Httle winter butter-making. A 




Creameries, Cheese Factories, etc. 
IN Wisconsin, 19 10 

Courtesy of Wisconsin Agricultural 
Experimental Station. 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 



273 




Butter Making — The Old Way 



COW that would make a pound of butter a day for three 
or four months of the year was better than the average. 
Each farmer's wife made butter and cheese for home 
use, seUing the surplus in the local market. There was 
no uniformity in qual- 
ity, no certainty of clean 
and sanitary methods. 
The milk was ''set" 
in pans in the farm- 
house cellar or in the 
spring-house. When it 
was skimmed, a good 
percentage of the 
butter-fat was left behind and wasted. It is estimated 
that in this way the average cow yielded from twelve 
to fifty pounds of butter a year less than it might have 
produced. The cream was churned in the old-fashioned 

wooden-dasher churn 
that has tried the pa- 
tience of many a farm 
boy and girl. 

The change from 
home to factory, and 
from hand labor to 
machinery, in butter- 
making began in this 
country when the first 
creamery was established in Orange County, New York. 
This was in 1861, and creameries soon spread rapidly 
in that and neighboring states. A great improvement 
in this business came about through the adoption 
of an invention that was brought from Europe. This 




Butter Making — The New Way 



274 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 




Milking Machine 



was the cream separator. The first form, invented 
in Germany in 1864, consisted of pails that were swung 
around a central shaft. From these the cream had to be 
skimmed. Fifteen years later, the present form of the 

separator was made com- 
plete in Sweden and Den- 
mark, and was rapidly 
brought into use in this 
country. 

Several advantages have 
come with the use of the 
separator. First, it secures 
a larger percentage of the 
butter-fat than the old-fash- 
ioned skimming method did. 
Next, there is an advantage 
in securing the cream while the milk has its natural 
warmth. Then, too, the skim milk can be used while it 
is still warm and sweet. Finally, there is a great relief 
to the women of the farm, for the care of the milk and 
the cleaning of milk pans was a heavy task. 

When the separator first came into use, the whole milk 
was taken to the creameries. Afterwards, skimming 
stations were estabUshed, to which the milk was brought 
and from which the cream was forwarded to the creameries. 
Now, nearly every farm home has its own separator. 

Another invention of the greatest importance has 
placed the dairy business upon a scientific basis. Before 
1890 cream was paid for at the creameries by the inch. 
One can readily see the unfairness of this method, for it 
took no account of quality. To correct this, men sought to 
find new ways of testing the amount of butter-fat in milk. 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 



275 




The first practical test came from the work of Professor 
Stephen M. Babcock, of the University of Wisconsin, in 
1890. Mr. Babcock took out no patent on his invention: 
he gave it freely to the world; and so simple and effective 
is the little machine that it is everywhere 
used. The Babcock milk test has revolu- 
tionized the dairy industry, not only of this 
country but of foreign countries as well. 

The farmer's milk and cream are now 
paid for according to quahty rather than 
quantity. This has obliged him to pay 
attention to the quality of his stock, which 
in turn, has led to the breeding of the best 
grades of stock. The farmer now studies 
each individual cow, particularly as to its Original Form 
care and feeding, in order to get the best -^^^^ tester 
product. The result is that there have been 
bred in America Jerseys and Guernseys that show better 
butter-making records than those of cows raised in the 
islands from which these breeds originally came. 

In the middle of the last century, cheese-making was 
no farther advanced than it had been for centuries. 
The work, which was difficult and required considerable 
care, was done by hand and in the home. At night, 
after the milking was done, a tub was filled half or two- 
thirds full of fresh, carefully strained milk. If the milk 
was not warm enough, a part was heated to bring the 
whole to the temperature of about 98° F. To this warm 
milk was added a certain amount of rennet, which coagu- 
lated it. Rennet is the prepared inner lining of the 
calf's stomach. The tub was then covered with a square 
of cheesecloth and left overnight. In the morning the 



276 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES |i 

milk was found to be separated into two portions, the 
thick curd on top and the whey, resembHng milky water, 
beneath. The next operation was to cut across the 
curd in both directions, thus forming squares. 

A rack, or short ladder, was then placed across the top 
of an empty tub and on this was set the ''cheese basket" 




Jersey Cow 
Producer of 800 pounds of butter in one year. 

— a shallow, openwork basket of splints. The curds 
were then Hfted into this basket, which had previously 
been hned with cheesecloth. The whey drained through 
into the tub below. Later, a pail or more of clean, cold 
water was poured over the curds in the basket. Next, 
the proper amount of salt was mixed into the curds with 
a wooden spoon or paddle. Sometimes sage was added, 
thus making "sage cheese," which was considered a great 
deHcacy by some people. Color could be given to the 
cheese by the addition of a small amount of cooked 
carrot. 

After the curds had been properly drained, they were 
placed in a ''cheese hoop" — a circular wooden cyHnder, 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 277 

fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter and from six to 
eight inches deep. Circular blocks of wood were fitted 
into the top and bottom of the cheese hoop, which was 
then taken to the cheese press. Here, by a screw or lever 
device, pressure was applied to the upper block and 
increased from time to time during the next twenty-four 
hours. The cheese was then removed, and the ragged 
edges, caused by the pressure forcing the curds between 
the hoop and the blocks, were trimmed off. A fresh 
cloth was wrapped about the cheese, it was placed back 
in the hoop, and was returned to the press for a second 
twenty-four hour period. When it was next removed, 
a new piece of cheesecloth was firmly sewed about it and 
then the entire surface of the cheese was rubbed with 
butter. 

The next process was that of curing, which took from 
three to six months. As each cheese was made, it was 
placed on a shelf in the cheese room or cheese house; 
and each day all were rubbed with butter and turned so 
that they would cure evenly. Such was the long and 
difficult process of domestic cheese-making. 

The first cheese factory was built in Oneida County, 
New York, in 185 1. Like the creameries, these factories 
spread rapidly throughout the East. It is estimated 
that in 1850 there were produced in the entire country 
about a hundred milfion pounds of cheese, all, of course, 
made on the farm. According to the census of 19 10, 
the product was about 320,000,000 pounds, of which all 
but two or three per cent was made in factories. In 
the case of butter-making, however, the proportions are 
quite different, more than one-half the product still being 
homemade. 



278 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

The first cheese and butter factories were organized 
on the associated, or cooperative plan; that is, the 
farmers who furnished the milk owned shares in the 
business. This idea has spread throughout the country, 
and several different plans are found in various localities. 
According to one plan, each farmer who is a patron (that 
is, furnishes milk to the creamery or cheese factory) 
shares in the profits according to the amount of milk, or 
rather butter-fat, that he brings. A manager is em- 
ployed and the business is controlled by a board of 
directors. 

In other cases a stock company is formed, composed 
wholly or in part of farmers, while milk is received from 
others who do not own shares. Under still another plan, 
the factory is run, as are other plants, by proprietors who 
buy the milk and take the profits. 

The business of making condensed milk, which began 
about i860, has grown to enormous proportions. The 
South, especially, affords a great market for condensed 
milk, partly because of the backward condition of dairy- 
ing in that section. 

Many valuable by-products are now made in connection 
with cheese factories and creameries. From whey is 
made sugar of milk. From skim milk albumen, which 
has many uses, is manufactured. The casein is also 
extracted, and used in the preparation of paints and 
glues. In soHd form it makes many articles of common 
use — combs, brush-backs, buttons, etc. 

In connection with the history of dairying, it is well 
to recall some facts mentioned in the previous chapter, 
with regard to the increased use of machinery. The 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 



279 



proper support of dairy herds involves the harvesting of 
immense crops of hay and corn; there must be no uncer- 
tainty and no failure with these crops. The machines 
previously described make this result possible. The use 
of the silo is also a most important step in the progress 
that has been made by dairying within the last few 
decades. 

The dairy industry of the country has been greatly 




Modern Barn with Silo 

helped, not only by the organization of the breeders' 
associations previously mentioned, but also by dairy- 
men's associations. The American Dairymen's Associa- 
tion dates from 1863, and the Northwestern Dairymen's 
Association from 1867. Since then many State associa- 
tions have been formed. 

Cow- testing associations began in 1905, and now 
much testing is being done by students in schools. Agri- 
cultural colleges have given much attention to this 



28o AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

subject, and short-course dairy schools during the winter 
months may now be found in most of the States. 

Important changes have also taken place in the business 
of selHng milk for town and city supply. The carrying 
or shipment of milk for considerable distances was im- 
possible before the refrigerating process came into use. 
Now, a part of the milk supply of any large city comes 
from a distance of two or three hundred miles. Then, 
too, this business has been placed under stricter govern- 
mental control. The tuberculin test, creamery and dairy 
inspection, and the official testing of both the richness 
and the cleanhness of milk have had important effects 
upon both the farmers' conduct of the business and the 
health of city dwellers. 

The development of dairying during the past half 
century has influenced our agricultural life in ways that 
it is impossible to estimate. As a result of improved 
dairying, the farmer's wife has been relieved of much 
drudgery; but the farmer himself has become more 
closely bound than ever before to his duties in the care of 
stock. For, though the milking machine is used to some 
extent, the prompt and regular feeding and milking of 
the cows, the weighing, testing, and recording of the 
daily output on ''milk charts," such as are kept by 
scientific farmers, the sanitary disposal of the milk, the 
cleaning of the utensils, and of the cows and stables as 
well — all these things make severe exactions upon the 
time and thought of the up-to-date dairyman. 

The income received from the sale of dairy products is 
now a very important part of the American farmers' 
reward for their labor. But even more important is the 
effect of dairying in keeping up the fertility of the soil. 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING 281 

In one section of the country after another, the run-down 
soil has been restored and kept in the best condition 
through the dairy herd; while at the same time a rich 
profit is received from the products yielded by the fine 
animals that make this possible. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
THE NEW ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 

All through American history, until the time of the 
present generation, the increase of farm crops came 
chiefly from the use of new land. It is said that the 
American farmer has been a miner, rather than a farmer; 
that is, he has extracted valuable materials from the 
earth without returning much to it. Only now is he 
putting into practice to any large extent the principle of 
raising better crops by better methods. The general 
ideas of scientific farming were held by many men as 
early as Washington's time and before; but there were 
three obstacles to their being put into practice by the 
average American farmer, both of those days and of 
much later times as well. 

1. It was easier, and generally more profitable, to 
cultivate new land than to do intensive farming on the old. 

2. Even the most intelligent farmers had little knowl- 
edge of the proper treatment of soils and pl^nt life; the 
scientists themselves knew httle about such matters. 

3. The mass of farmers would not adopt such new 
ideas as came to them. To do that would be ''book 
farming" and entirely impractical, they said. This 
reluctance of farmers (even those of the last genera- 
tion) to accept advice from experts, or to profit by the 
experience of those who had made experiments in a 
scientific manner, may be at least partially explained. 
These farmers were either actually, or in spirit, pioneers. 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 283 

The pioneer is by nature and necessity independent. 
He succeeds in a new country and in the midst of hard, 
adverse circumstances by being able to take care of him- 
self, and his chief pride is his self-reKance. Says a friend 
of the writer, ''My father and mother were pioneers, 
and I know that they had a sort of stubborn pride in 
doing things and meeting emergencies in their own way, 
perhaps because they had survived the test of a period 
when they had to rely on themselves. In that time 
there was no one to advise them, and each new emergency 
was unique. In later times, when the country was 
settled, they still took pride in following their own pecuHar 
methods, when it would have been both easier and less 
expensive to seek the advice and experience of others. 
This pride was perhaps unfortunate, but I Hke to think 
that it was a pardonable reHc of a quahty that had en- 
abled them to survive and had inspired them to encounter 
the rigors of pioneer Hfe." 

Gradually, in our own times, these obstacles are being 
more or less completely overcome for three reasons. 

1. The supply of government free land of good quality 
is becoming exhausted; so it is necessary to do better 
farming. 

2. The work of investigation carried on by colleges of 
agriculture and by the State and Federal departments of 
agriculture has given us a great mass of accurate scien- 
tific knowledge about soils, plants, and animals. 

3. A new generation of farmers is arising, who have 
been educated in various ways to beHeve in the work of 
scientists and experimenters and who are willing to drop 
their old methods and to try new ones. This change 
that is now coming about — from the old "guess-work" 



284 AGRICULTURE IX THE UNITED STATES 

agriculture, based upon superstition, tradition, and 
custom, to the new scientific agriculture — is as great a 
change as that from hand to machine methods on the 
farm. 

We saw in Chapter IX that soon after the American 
Revolution agricultural societies were formed and that 
papers devoted to the interests of agriculture began to be 
pubHshed. Then, later, agricultural fairs became numer- 
ous. All these had an educational influence. But the 
first direct teaching in agriculture in this country seems 
to have been in a school established in 182 1 at Gardiner, 
Maine. 

Soon after, the subject was taught in Connecticut 
and Ohio. Everywhere, both North and South, men 
were talking about the necessity for agricultural educa- 
tion; but few were wilfing to invest money in schools or 
colleges that should do the work. Some beheved that the 
state governments should support such institutions; but 
the state legislatures refused to make the appropriations. 
Agricultural departments were attached to numerous 
academies and colleges, and finally, the first agricul- 
tural college in the United States was opened, in 1857, at 
Lansing, ^lichigan. Maryland, Kansas, and Pennsyl- 
vania followed in succeeding years the example set by 
Michigan. 

But the most important step in aiding the cause of 
scientific agriculture in our country was the Morrill Act, 
named for Justin L. ^lorrill, representative in Congress, 
and afterwards senator, from Vermont. This law, 
passed by Congress in 1862, gave to each state, under the 
conditions named below, as many times 30,000 acres of 
public land as it had senators and representatives. The 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



28s 



states were to sell this land and thus accumulate funds 
that were to be invested. The interest from these funds 
was to be devoted to the support in each state of a college 
of "agriculture and mechanic arts." The states were 
to provide the buildings for these colleges. How remark- 
able it was that in the midst of a dreadful civil war men 
should turn their eyes in the direction of scientific agricul- 
ture as a means of building up the strength of the nation! 






ltfetA.1 



AGRICULTUILA.L Hall, Xorth Carolina College op Agricltlture 



The '4and grant" colleges thus provided for now exist 
in every state of the Union, as well as in Hawaii and 
Porto Rico, the total number being 68. They are in 
some cases connected with the state university and in 
others they are separate institutions. They have been 
a powerful means of bringing about the study of new 
methods and of educating young men to apply these 
methods in actual farm work. 

The holding of farmers' institutes was begun in New 
England before the year 1870, and has continued from 
year to year extending throughout the country. Thus 
the scientific knowledge of the colleges has been spread 



286 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

broadcast, and better methods have been preached in 
the ears of every farmer who was wilHng to hsten. 

In 1890 Congress passed a second "Morrill Act." It 
gradually added to the funds from which the state agri- 
cultural colleges are supported until the amount received 
yearly was $25,000 for each. Still later, in 1907, the 
annual amount donated to each college was increased to 
$50,000. 

Now, an agricultural college ought to do more than 
merely teach the knowledge that men already have 




Wisconsin Agricultural College and Experiment Station 

about the work of farming. It should be, in addition, 
a place where new knowledge is constantly being dis- 
covered. This can only come about by conducting 
experiments, and this our agricultural colleges have done 
from the very beginning. In some cases, the early 
agricultural societies encouraged experiments on a small 
scale, and such work was carried on by the Department 
of Agriculture when that was first established (1862). 
But the first separate state agricultural experiment 
station was that of Connecticut, in charge of Prof. W. 0. 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



287 



Atwater (1875). Within a few years a number of states 
followed this example. 

The greatest step in this direction was taken in 1887, 
when Congress passed the Hatch Act, appropriating 
money for experiment stations in connection with the 
various agricultural colleges. These stations not only 




Map Showing Location of Agricultural Colleges and 
Experiment Stations 

conduct investigations and make experiments in all 
fields of agriculture, but also publish bulletins and reports 
in which the results of their work are set forth. In the 
Department of Agriculture at Washington there is an 
"OfHce of Experiment Stations," which keeps in touch 
with all the stations and brings together the results of 
their work. There are at present sixty-five of these 
stations. 

It is quite impossible to describe in a simple way all 
the different kinds of scientific work that have been 



288 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

done in the colleges and experiment stations.^ Perhaps 
these may be brought under different heads, as the 
different sciences have been employed in the gaining of 
new knowledge. The principal ones are botany, chem- 
istry, bacteriology, zoology, and entomology. 

The study of botany has been especially valuable in 
the work of plant breeding. It is well known that our 
grains, fruits, and vegetables, as we have them to-day, 
are better in many respects than those of a hundred 
years ago, when plant breeding was in its infancy. The 
practices of seed selection and cross fertilizing, at first 
carried on by guess-work methods, have come to be 
based upon scientific principles. A famous example of 
early efforts along this fine is the development of the 
Concord grape, by selection from a native wild grape. 
This work was done by Ephraim Bull of Concord, Massa- 
chusetts. Beginning in 1840, without scientific knowl- 
edge, Bull patiently studied his problem; and although 
the fine variety of grape that he produced has given 
many men wealth and all of us pleasure, he himself died 
in poverty. 

Many important varieties of pears and apples have 
been developed from chance seedlings that happened to 
attract attention. The Baldwin apple had its origin in 
this manner, in 1782, and a monument has been erected 
on the spot where the original tree stood. By careful 
selection, also, there were developed the Northern Spy, 
beginning in 1800, and the Jonathan (1829). The 
Wealthy apple is the result of persistent efforts made by 
Peter M. Gideon of Minnesota, about 1855, to find an 

1 The scientific work of the Department of Agriculture is described 
in the next chapter. 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



289 



apple tree that would endure the great cold of the North- 
west. Each year, for nine years, he planted enough 
seed to grow a thousand trees, but all the seedlings were 
killed. Finally, from one small crab tree there was 
developed the fine variety now so famous, named for 
his wife, Wealthy. 

Some of our most important varieties in plums, berries, 
and tomatoes are the product of careful hybridization — 




Prize Corn 



the crossing of two or more varieties. Within the last 
fifty years, the tomato has been changed from a small, 
lobed fruit to its present size and shape. The Early 
Rose potato dates from about 1861. -Many famous 
varieties were thus produced before the science of plant 
breeding came into being. But now the plant breeders, 
work inteUigently, according to nature's laws, without 
such waste of time and effort as formerly. They plan 
to bring about certain quaHties in plants — a -beardless 
barley, a cold-resisting wheat, a longer stapled cotton — 
and they succeed. Breeding associations in large num- 
bers are studying, experimenting, and spreading broad- 



290 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

cast the result of their work, to improve the quahties of 
our farm plants. 

The original American Indians practiced seed selection 
in their growing of maize; but a wonderful change has 
been brought about in the size and character of this 
grain, by the systematic work of scientific men. 

Great interest has been aroused in the subject of plant 
breeding through the work of Luther Burbank. Though 
he has been called a wizard, there is no secret about the 
methods by which he selects seeds and plants having the 
characteristics that he wishes to develop. Let Mr. 
Burbank tell in his own words about the beginnings of 
his work. It was when he was a boy in Massachusetts 
that he raised roasting ears and brought them to the 
Fitchburg market two weeks earher than those of his 
neighbors. He says: ''The whole secret of my plan was 
to germinate the corn before planting it. Before my 
neighbors, or I, could begin spring plowing, I obtained 
fresh stable manure which I mixed with leaf mould from 
the woods — about half and half. While this mixture 
was moist and hot I placed the seed corn in it, mixing 
the whole mass together Hghtly. This I allowed to 
stand until the seed had thrown out roots ranging from 
two to six, or even eight inches in length, while the tops 
had grown about one-half an inch. 

''In the meantime, as soon as possible, the land was 
prepared to receive this sprouted corn by making drills 
about four feet apart. Along these drills this corn was 
dropped liberally, no attention being paid as to whether 
it was right side up or otherwise. I then covered it 
about one-half inch in depth. It was nothing unusual 
to find the corn up and growing next morning; and this 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 291 

method alone insured me a crop at least a week in advance 
of all other planters who could reach the Fitchburg market. 

''But this was not all. As I said before, the kernels 
were planted quite hberally along the drills. Some 
would show a very strong growth and some a very weak 
growth. The weaker ones were pulled out after a few 
days and the stronger ones left at a distance of about 
twelve to eighteen inches apart. Thus by selecting the 
strong from the weak, and giving the best fitted the 
best opportunity to grow, I gained a total advance of 
nearly two weeks over my competitors. The result was 
that I averaged 50 cents a dozen for my corn with an 
eager market, where my competitors found their product, 
two weeks later, a drug on the market, at ten cents or 
less per dozen." ^ 

By his skill in selected plants, Mr. Burbank has 
"created" valuable new varieties. It is estimated that 
the Burbank potato is adding seventeen and one-half 
million dollars annually to the farm incomes of the 
country. His spineless cactus is used for forage in arid 
regions. Remarkable walnuts, cherries, and other fruits, 
and a host of beautiful flowers show the possibiHties of 
methods of selection that can be appHed anywhere. 

Chemistry was one of the earliest sciences to be brought 
to the aid of agriculture; but it was nearly 1850 before 
very important results came about in this country. 
Chemistry has given us an ever-increasing knowledge of 
the composition of soils and plants. When one knows 
what elements are present in the soil, and what are lack- 
ing, he has taken the first step toward better crops. 
It has been discovered that the principal elements that 
^ The Works of Luther Burbank. 



292 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

the soil should contain in certain proportions are nitrogen, 
potassium, and phosphorus. If any of these is lacking 
in a given field, it should be suppHed. The science of 
chemistry is interested not only in discovering the lack, 
but also in discovering sources of supply. With regard 
to the last-mentioned element — phosphorus — this coun- 
try has been dependent upon the supply of phosphoric 
rock from Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina. As 
these have become somewhat exhausted, new fields have 
been discovered in the Rocky Mountains. In 1908, 
President Roosevelt ordered that nearly five miUion 
acres of government land where this rock was plentiful 
should be withheld from sale. Thus a supply of 
phosphorus sufficient for many years was kept from 
being acquired and held as a monopoly by a few 
persons. 

When the chemists discovered that there was not 
enough potassium in some soils, the necessary supply 
had to be imported from Germany. Later, scientists 
showed how to extract it from certain rocks; and still 
later they taught us to obtain it from sea kelp. This 
will prove to be a cheap and inexhaustible source of 
supply. 

The furnishing of nitrogen to soils in which it was 
lacking — as in the use of manures — was practiced for 
a long time before the chemistry of the matter was under- 
stood. When the EngHsh colonists began farming, they 
had few animals and were glad to follow the custom of 
the Indians. These, having no domestic animals except 
the dog, used fish as a fertilizer. Because the dogs dug 
up the fish that were placed in the corn-hills, the town 
meeting of Ipswich, Massachusetts, passed a law, in 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 293 

1644, requiring that ''all the doggs for the space of three 
weeks from the pubKshing hereof shall have one Jegg 
tyed up. . . . If a man refuse to tye up his dogg's leg, 
and hee bee found scraping up fish in a corn field, the 
owner thereof shall pay twelve pence damage, beside 
whatever damage the dogg doth." 

The farmers of America have never properly used 
the enormous supply of barn manure that has been at 
their command, partly because in early times, as is true 
to some extent to-day, it was cheaper to take fresh land 
than to build up the old. Another reason is this: recently 
it has been discovered that out of six milHon farmers who 
made reports, one-half have occupied their farms as 
owners or tenants for less than five years. One million 
of them have been in their present locations for less than 
one year. Is it any wonder that these farmers have not 
taken sufficient interest in the soil of their farms to keep 
it in good condition by the use of manure? 

It is estimated that in the entire country each year's 
supply of manure is worth more than two billion dollars, 
and that from one-fourth to one-half of this is wasted! 
What becomes of it? In some places it is burned; in 
others it is dumped into ravines; again, into a^ creek or 
a hole in the ground; more often it is merely left in a 
pile without being moved at all. 

At the same time, it is said that in 19 10 the farmers 
spent about $130,000,000 for artificial fertilizers. These 
contain various chemical elements and are manufactured 
for sale. 

Much of this expense would be unnecessary if farmers 
used the improved methods now available for saving 
and handling this important by-product of the cows, 



294 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



horses, pigs, sheep, and chickens. With manure carriers 
and manure spreaders, the labor of placing the fertiHzer 
where it will do the most good has been much reduced; 
and at the same time its value in enriching the soil has 
been greatly increased. 

The use of fertiHzers is not the only way of furnishing 
nitrogen to the soil. It has long been known that a worn- 
out soil would be improved by growing upon it clover and 
other leguminous plants. The reason for this was dis- 
covered through another branch of science — -bacteriology. 
This difficult science with a long name deals with the mil- 
lions of minute organisms that are to be found in every 
cubic foot of earth, air, and water in the entire world. 
These tiny organisms vary in size from 5^-5 V"o to 25,000 of 
an inch in diameter. It is they who are at work when milk 
turns sour, or cream ripens, 
when cider turns to vinegar, 
and in all cases of decay 
and fermentation. Two Ger- 
man scientists (Hellriegel 
and Willfarth) discovered, in 
1888, that the leguminous 
plants have, in nodules on 
their roots, bacteria that 
take nitrogen from the air 
and make it available as 
their food. It is through 
this process that the growth 
of these plants restores the 
soil. In their laboratories 
bacteriologists have grown the bacteria in large numbers, 
and have bottled them up and shipped them to farmers. 




Nodules Containing Nitrogen 
On the roots of a leguminous plant. 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



295 



The latter, in turn, by making a solution containing the 
bacteria, have thus been able to fertilize their lands. The 
next step in chemical progress will perhaps enable us, 
by the use of the electric current, to take nitrogen directly 



w 




-..r- ...,^^ 




^i^'^-^'"^^^^^^ 





Unsprayed: Poor Apples at the Right. 



^mM^^'^^ 



Sprayed : Poor Apples at the Right 
Results of Spraying Fruit Trees. 



from the air and sell it cheaply to farmers. In fact, 
this is already being done in Norway. 

Within the last thirty years the science of bacteriology 
has performed many other wonders. Through it, the 
nature of certain animal diseases has been discovered; 
for example, anthrax in cattle. Such diseases are the 
result of infection by bacteria. Methods of vaccina- 



296 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

tion and inoculation have been discovered to combat 
them. 

The science of bacteriology has also discovered that 
the fungus pests, blights, rusts, scabs, and rots on trees 
and fruits are due to the same general cause — minute^ 
organisms that eat away the life of the plant. Previously, 
these pests destroyed untold millions of dollars' worth of 
crops. They are now being controlled in various ways, 
especially by the use of sprays. We have also learned 
how smuts on cereals can be checked by the treatment 
of the seed with formaldehyde solution. Bacteriologists 
now stand guard at the ports of the United States to 
examine plants, shrubs, and trees that are imported, in 
order to exclude those having diseases. Plant breeders 
also are at work developing resistant varieties that are 
not easily affected by the various pests. 

Bacteriology, in connection with another science, 
zoology, has gone far into the causes of diseases in ani- 
mals. There has been organized, as a result, much 
valuable work in meat inspection and quarantines for 
the control of such diseases as cholera and 
W^'Wi^ the foot-and-mouth disease. ' Without the 

laws which scientists have helped to frame. 
Codling Moth ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^.^^^j^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^p^.^^^ ^^ 

epidemics, and many human lives would be sacrificed, 
as well, through the eating of infected meats and other 
products. 

Entomology, which treats of insect life, is still another 
science that has recently made much advance. The 
full story of its discoveries would be of great interest. 
Just as the botanist studies the Hfe history of a noxious 
weed in order to prevent its spread, so the entomologist 




ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



297 




studies the lives of the insects that live in our fields 
and orchards, to discover how to destroy those that 
damage the crops. It was 
in this way that some forty 
years ago Paris green was 
first used to kill potato bugs. 
Without scientific knowledge 
of the codhng moth, or apple 
worm, and its proper treat- 
ment, it would be impossible 
to produce the millions of 
bushels of apples that make 
our yearly crop. The fife 
histories of the Hessian fly Australian Ladybird 

and the boll weevil have Also, onthe branch, the white scale of 

taught us how to control the ''^''^ '^' ^"^>^^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^>^- 
destructive work of these pests. 

Entomologists have discovered insects that are enemies 
of various pests: a fly was brought from Spain as the 
enemy of the apple worm; to destroy the citrus scale a 
minute ladybird was found in Australia; for the black 
scale another ladybird was found in Africa. In some 
states the authorities keep on hand the insects that will 
kill certain pests, and they are furnished to the growers 
whose crops are threatened. 

A writer has said that ^'the progress of agriculture in 
the last generation has been greater than in all the genera- 
tions that have preceded. At the source of this progress 
has been a deeper knowledge. This knowledge has been 
made very largely possible through agricultural educa- 
tion." The centers of education have been the state 
colleges and the experiment stations. These have spread 



298 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



among the farmers the knowledge that has been gathered, 
by means of their reports and bulletins; by farmers' 
institutes; by the winter "short courses" which farmers 

have attended; 
and by many 
kinds of "exten- 
sion" work. 

One of the first 
agricultural col- 
leges to attempt 
extension work 
was that at Cor- 
nell University, 
Ithaca, New York. 
The authorities of 
this college began 
making experi- 
ments and tests 
on certain farms. 
They encouraged 
nature study work 
in the public 
schools, furnish- 
ing reading ma- 




Map Showing where Agri- 
cultural Extension Meetings 
were held in alabama (1914) 



terial for the pupils. They also gave to farmers and 
their wives opportunity to read and study upon the sub- 
ject of agriculture as though they were attending college. 
Such methods have been followed in other states. 

Nowadays, the intelKgent farmer who is puzzled by a 
farm problem, instead of consulting the almanac, with 
its age-old wisdom, writes a letter to the agricultural 
college of his state, and the rural deHvery postman 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



299 



brings him by return mail a reply from the expert who is 
spending his Hfe studying that particular kind of prob- 
lem. Or, it may be, the expert himself comes to the farm 
to look into the case and to work out the proper solu- 
tion. In some states there is '' Farmers' Week," when 
the farmers and their wives come to the agricultural 
college to see the work that is being done, to Hsten to 
lectures, and to carry home the latest ideas about the 
plants and animals, the machines and domestic duties 
that fill their lives full of hard work. 

Each agricultural college, with its accompanying 
experiment station, is absorbed in studying a score or 
more of practical problems, the solution of which will 
help the farmers of that state. It is not possible to 
mention more than a very small part of the topics being 
investigated; one from each of several states may serve 
as samples of the entire field. 

In Alabama, the scientists 
have studied the diseases 
and improvement of the 
cotton plant; in Virginia, 
the production of apples 
suited to its climate; in 
Maryland, experiments with 
stock feeding; in Florida, the 
pineapple industry; in Mas- 
sachusetts, the improvement 
of farm homes; in Louisiana, 
new varieties of sugar cane; in Connecticut, the values 
of different foods; in IlHnois, the chemical composition 
of corn; in Vermont, diseases of potatoes; in Texas, the 
proper feeding of cattle; in Minnesota, farm manage- 




Kaffir Corn 



300 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



ment; in New Hampshire, good roads; in Michigan, the 
sugar beet; in Montana, the irrigation of alkaU lands; in 
North Dakota, the production of resistant flax; in Wis- 
consin, improved breeds of barley; in Delaware, the rota- 
tion of crops; in New York, the improvement of timothy; 
in Kansas, the introduction of Kaffir corn; in Arizona, 
the cultivation of the date palm. Every one of these 
studies results in new information; this is the beginning 
of progress. 




Minnesota High School Students Testing Corn 
In several states, special trains carrying exhibits are 
sent out from the agricultural colleges. Illustrated 
lectures are held, and also consultations for the benefit 
of the farmers, wherever the trains stop. In some cases 
railroad companies, and in other instances business men's 
associations and implement manufacturers, have furnished 
the funds that support these travelling exhibits. Thus 
thousands of farmers who cannot go to the colleges are 
being brought into touch with the latest and best agricul- 
tural information. 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 301 

In spite of all this educational work, directed in and 
from the agricultural colleges, comparatively few of the 
total number of farmers have been vitally affected in 
their daily work by all this mass of new knowledge. The 
agricultural education of the farmer, it has come to be 
believed, should begin earher. The science of agriculture 
should be taught in high schools and in the grades of other 
public schools. The first agricultural high school was 
opened in Minnesota in the year 1888. Later, others 
were founded in several states; recently there has been 
a great increase in the number of high schools in which 
an agricultural course is offered. Various states — Vir- 
ginia, Maine, and Minnesota being among the first — have 
given state aid to high schools that have such courses. 

In several states, instruction in agriculture is required 
in all the rural schools. Everywhere men are saying 
that the best education for a child is that which fits him 
best to understand the life of the community in which 
he lives, and that enables him to take up the work of life 
prepared to do it well. Upon this theory, can there be 
any doubt that progress is being made in the right direc- 
tion when the study of nature and its wonderful laws, 
upon which the farmer's daily work depends, forms a 
part of the course in rural schools? In these ways there 
is being reared a new generation of farmers. In earlier 
days they would have been laughed at as ''book farmers," 
but they will some day be men and women who have 
learned that the microscope is a safer guide in agriculture 
than the moon, and that chemistry will show the way 
when all signs of the weather fail. 

The problem has arisen, where shall we find the teachers 
prepared to teach these subjects? To fill this need, there 



302 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

have been established many county training schools and 
teachers' training courses in high schools. The agricul- 
tural colleges also are spending a part of the money 
received by them from Congress in the preparation of 
teachers. So a beginning has been made in the work of 
bringing scientific knowledge to the mind of every future 
farmer and farmer's wife. 

It has been said by an authority upon this subject 
that our agricultural history has passed through three 
stages: (i) From the beginning to about i860 was the 
''self-sufhcing" stage; that is, upon each farm were pro- 
duced or made as much as possible of the food, cloth- 
ing, etc. that the family needed. (2) From i860 to about 
1890 was the ''money-making" period. The same 
methods of soil exhaustion were used; but the effort was 
to raise as much as possible of special crops for sale on 
the market. (3) Since 1890, we have begun the scientific 
age. The farmer can no longer depend upon tradition 
or "rule of thumb" methods. Hence the need for all 
the education that has been outlined above. 

But with all our progress in many directions, there is 
still room for much improvement. Says a writer, "land 
is 'wearing out' with us in ten, twenty, or thirty years; 
whereas I walked over lands in Europe which had been 
cultivated for centuries before our forefathers first 
heard that an Itahan named Columbus had discovered a 
continent beyond the seas — and these lands are pro- 
ducing bigger crops than then." We may add that 
they are producing better crops per acre than the farms 
of the United States. For while our average yield of 
wheat per acre was, in 1907, 14 bushels (having declined 
from nearly sixteen in 1899), that of Great Britain is 



ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 303 

more than 32 bushels, France nearly 20 bushels, Germany 
28 bushels, and Netherlands over 34 bushels. In their 
production of other grains and vegetables these countries 
show similar conditions. It may be added, however, 
that these results are accounted for not only by the 
accurate use of intensive methods, but also by the fact 
that the people of these countries import large quantities 
of fertilizers. 

Such facts not only convince us of the possibiUties of 
scientific and intensive agriculture, but they point to 
the necessity of it if our people are to be as well fed and 
as prosperous in the future as they have been in the past. 



iV^ 



CHAPTER XXIV 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

One who visits the city of Washington will learn much 
about the actual work of governing our country if he 
spends some time in the Capitol, where Congress meets, 

and if he visits the White House, 
where the President lives. But 
he will learn more if he looks 
within some of the great office 
buildings, where the work of 
the administrative departments 
is carried on. A visit to the 
Department of Agriculture will 
vividly impress one with the 
extent to which this interest of 
the country is being cared for by 
the more than fourteen thousand 
employees of this great institu- 
tion — the greatest of its kind 
in the world. The progress of 
scientific agriculture, described in a previous chapter, 
would hardly have been possible without the efforts of 
the men who have built up the Department of Agri- 
culture from small beginnings to its present great 
efficiency. Only a brief account of its history and 
work can here be given. 

From our earliest history, one government or another 
has fostered agriculture. King James encouraged the 




James Wilson 

Secretary of Agriculture, 
1897-1913. 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



305 



breeding of silkworms in Virginia. Parliament placed a 
bounty on indigo to advance its culture. Most, if not 
all, of the colonies helped some branch of agricultural 
work: in Massachusetts, stock raising; in Georgia, the 
culture of mulberry trees; in Virginia, silk production 
and hop raising. We have seen that when a Board of 
Agriculture was estabhshed in England, President Wash- 
ington recommended that Congress provide for a similar 
board in this country. Nothing, however, was done by 




Department of Agriculture, Washixc.ton 

the general government to encourage agriculture for 
many years after Washington's time. 

In 1836, Henry L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, 
began asking the various United States consuls, who are 
stationed in foreign countries caring for the interests of 
our citizens, to send home the seeds of valuable plants 
that were native in those countries. These he distributed 
to friends. Besides doing this work, the Patent Office 
collected valuable information upon agricultural topics; 
this was printed and the reports were distributed by the 
government. In 1839 Congress appropriated $1,000 for 
the collection and distribution of seeds. 



3o6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

By the year 1862 it apppeared to some persons that such 
work was important enough to require a separate office; 
so the Department of Agriculture was created, and the 
Honorable Isaac Newton was made the first Commis- 
sioner. It was the duty of the Department to gather 
information upon agriculture, to pubhsh ideas that 
would be of value to farmers, and to grow and distribute 
new varieties of seeds. 

This was a small beginning, but the duties of the 
Department increased, until in 1889 it was placed upon 
an equal footing with the other departments and its head 
was made a cabinet officer. The first Secretary of Agri- 
culture was Norman J. Coleman, who served less than 
one month. Col. Jeremiah M. Rusk, of Wisconsin, was 
next appointed and held the position for four years. 

Mr. Rusk was a Wisconsin farmer, who had passed 
his boyhood in the midst of the rough pioneer conditions 
of Ohio; he made an honorable record in the Civil War, 
and later became governor of his adopted state. He 
had Httle formal education, but was gifted with native 
common sense and a vigor and hearty friendliness that 
made him a popular leader. He at once put new life 
into the work of his department. 

At this time the important European countries were 
excluding our meat products upon the ground that 
animal diseases prevailed here; in reality this was done 
principally to protect their farmers against American 
competition. Secretary Rusk vigorously pushed measures 
for stamping out pleuro-pneumonia and other diseases, 
and he began the work of meat inspection, which is now 
considered so important. Thus he forced the foreign 
governments to relax their restrictions, much to the 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 307 

benefit of our meat producers and, incidentally, our 
meat consumers. 

One after another, during this and following admin- 
istrations, the activities of the Department were increased, 
until a good description of them as they now exist would 
occupy an entire book. We can merely glance at a few of 
the most interesting. It will be understood that in its 
scientific work the bureaus of the Department of Agri- 
culture act in connection with the experiment stations 
that are distributed over the entire country, as described 
in the previous chapter. 

The work of the Bureau of Animal Industry, for instance, 
may be briefly stated under two heads: first, the improve- 
ment, and second, the protection of domestic animals. 
How to improve the breed of horses is one of the prob- 
lems which these officers have studied. Another is how 
to make Shorthorns better milkers. They are also try- 
ing to develop breeds of animals that are adapted to 
certain sections of the country; as, for instance, sheep for 
the western ranges. They study the question of feeds 
and nutrition, so as to give information about the most 
economical methods of feeding. 

Perhaps the most striking work of this Bureau has 
been in connection with the discovery of the causes for 
certain animal diseases. It was in 1890 that the germs 
of cattle fever, causing an annual loss of forty or fifty 
milHon dollars, were found to be carried by a tick. Then, 
through quarantine rules, and methods of treatment 
prescribed by the Bureau, the disease was checked. 
Later, the Bureau tried to find a way to develop a breed 
of cattle that would resist this disease; and in this work 
it has been successful. 



3o8 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



A similar study led to the stamping out of pleuro- 
pneumonia, a dreadful western cattle disease. Through 
the efforts of the Bureau, and by means of the laws that 
it executes, the foot-and-mouth disease has more than 
once been checked. No sooner, on any occasion, were 
telegraphic reports of the appearance of this disease 
received than the government's experts flocked to the 




Inspection of Sheep 
By Officers of the Bureau of Animal Indust'-y. 

places indicated and the task of tracing its origin and 
checking its spread began. 

The '' dipping " of sheep and cattle on the western ranges 
is another example of preventive work done under similar 
direction. It will be a great victory for scientific animal 
husbandry when we have cholera-resistant swine and 
tuberculosis-resistant cattle; in the minds of the scientists 
at Washington, these achievements are not impossible. 

An interesting activity of the Bureau of Animal In- 
dustry is that directed toward saving the enormous 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



309 



waste, estimated at fifty million dollars a year, in eggs. 
It has been discovered that the production of infertile 
eggs for market will prevent much loss. The Bureau has 
sent upon long trips through the country an egg car 




Egg and Poultry Demonstration Car 



containing exhibits and in which lectures, demonstrations, 
and advice are given freely. Thus, it is being shown 
that ''taking care of the pennies" will add much to the 
income of many farms, and, better still, will train the 
farmers to conduct even the smaller parts of their business 
in a careful and scientific manner. 

Just as this Bureau advances and protects animal life, 
so the Bureau of Plant Industry aims to improve and 
protect the plants that tnake the crops of the farm. 
Acting also in connection with the experiment stations, 
the Bureau conducts investigations and makes experi- 
ments in great numbers. For instance, its work resulted 
in the discovery that shallow cultivation was less likely 
to injure the roots of growing corn than deeper culti- 
vation. It has greatly helped, also, in the breeding of 



310 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

good grades of corn. About ten years ago, when the 
cotton boll weevil was doing great damage in the South, 
the officers of this Bureau made a study of peanut pro- 
duction. The farmers, who were discouraged over 
their cotton, were shown how best to raise this new crop. 
Those who tried it were greatly benefited, both in the 
state of their pocketbooks and in the condition of their 
fields. In less than twenty years, also, the beet sugar 
industry has become very important, through the aid of 
investigations made by the Bureau of Plant Industry. 

The diseases of grains and trees are the subject of 
especial care, and much good has resulted from the study 
of these matters. It is by the aid of the Department of 
Agriculture that experts are sent abroad to find the 
enemies of various diseases, several of which were men- 
tioned in a previous chapter (p. 298). On the borders 
of our country the government's agents stand ready to 
inspect all importations of plants, lest diseases should be 
brought in. 

One branch of this Bureau's work — that of explora- 
tion and plant introduction — is the natural outgrowth 
of the government's first efforts to aid agriculture. It 
will be remembered that, in 1836, officers residing abroad 
were asked to send home the seeds of plants that might 
prove to be adapted to this country. Now the govern- 
ment is not satisfied with this simple and haphazard way 
of obtaining new plants. Instead, it sends experts to 
the four corners of the globe to find such plants. More- 
over, these exploring agents are not sent aimlessly, but 
each with a special mission, to find particular plants the 
need for which has already been felt in some part of 
the United States. Of course, incidentally, many other 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



311 




Durum Wheat 



plants are also procured. Most interesting have been 
the adventures of these explorers; some have endured 
severe hardships, even risking their lives, and have had 
to exercise the greatest skill in order to accompHsh 
their difficult tasks. For in some foreign countries, and 
among some uncivil- 
ized peoples, their work 
is looked upon with 
suspicion, and obsta- 
cles are placed in their 
way. 

One of the first of 
these plant explorers. 
Prof. N. E. Hanson, 
was sent to Europe and Asia to obtain plants that 
would flourish in the dry soils and cold climate of our 
Far West. The alfalfa originally grown in this country 
had been bred in southern Europe and brought by 
way of Mexico to Southern California; it would not en- 
dure all cUmates. As a result of importation, we now 
have alfalfa that is drought proof. In the same way, 
durum, or macaroni, wheat was secured from Russia and 
Siberia. This is so exactly suited to the great wheat 
growing regions of the Northwest that within five years 
after its introduction ten milHon bushels were being 
raised there annually. Kaffir corn from South Africa 
has also been introduced into the semi-arid regions. 

Another very valuable plant that has come to us as a 
result of work done by our government's experts is a new 
variety of rice from Japan. There is a wide belt of land 
extending along the Gulf coasts of Louisiana and Texas 
where this rice is successfully grown. Its kernel is hard 



312 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



and short, and is less liable to become broken in the 
process of cleaning than is that of other varieties. In 
consequence, within a few years this crop has doubled 
and redoubled in value. 

There are propagating houses and gardens at Wash- 
ington in connection with the Bureau of Plant Industry; 
here new seeds and plants brought from abroad by our 




m^ 'f^t^ 



Experiment Station Farm 
United States Department of Agriculture. 

explorers are tested. From here seeds and cuttings are 
sent to experiment stations and to farmers, who propagate 
them further; and thus within a short time the new 
varieties are grown wherever they will flourish. 

More than 34,000 new varieties of plants have been 
brought into this country from abroad. Among other 
new plants, the following may be mentioned: the navel 
orange from Brazil, seedless grapes from Greece and 
Italy, the soy bean from China, Rhodes grass from South 
Africa, citrons from Corsica, cherries and peaches from 
Siberia, dates from Chaldea, and macaroni wheat from 
Italy. 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



313 



The practice of distributing seed through the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has grown to enormous proportions. 
Six or seven hundred tons of it are annually grown or 
purchased by the government and sent out in some sixty 
million packages to people all over the country. In one 
aspect this is not at all commendable. Undoubtedly 




Packing Seeds for Congressional Distribution 
Department of Agriculture. 

much of this seed is actually used in a scientific manner 
to improve the crops of those who receive it. But it is 
also true that much of it is sent out by members of Con- 
gress merely as a means of keeping themselves in favor 
with the voters. This comes dangerously near to using 
public money for improper purposes. This country 
ought to have outgrov/n such petty poHtical methods. 

From the Bureau of Plant Industry packages of seed 
are sent to schools, with directions for their cultivation 
in school gardens. 

Something has already been said (see p. 292) about the 
importance of chemistry in agriculture. The Bureau of 



314 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

Chemistry in the Department of Agriculture has for its 
duty not only the protection of the farmer's stock from 
impure feed, but also the protection of the people against 
impure food or medicine. It may condemn articles that 
are injurious, whether manufactured here or imported 
from abroad. The provisions of the Pure Food and Drugs 
Act of 1906 are carried out by this Bureau. 

Under the Bureau of Soils, maps of different districts 
of the country have been made, showing the kinds of 
soil in each. The maps are guides to persons who wish 
to know where certain crops are likely to succeed or fail. 

The Bureau of Statistics gathers from time to time, 
through its thousands of agents, facts concerning the con- 
dition of crops. This information is published, and the 
knowledge thus secured aids many farmers in the market- 
ing of their crops. 

The Weather Bureau has most interesting functions. 
The government began the work of weather reporting in 
1870, when it was carried on by the Signal Corps of the 
Army, under the Department of War. In 1891 these 
duties were transferred to the Department of Agriculture, 
and now there are about two hundred official stations 
from which weather reports are received at Washington 
daily. Besides these, there are a great many other 
observation points. From the reports telegraphed to 
Washington and other central points, the daily weather 
bulletin is made out and sent at once to the remotest 
parts of the land. This is not only a great convenience 
to the people as a whole; it results in much benefit to 
farmers. 

It is estimated that in the year 1911-1912, warnings 
of frost saved twenty million dollars' worth of fruit in 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 315 

California, while flood warnings saved from destruction 
property of even greater value. In more than five milKon 
homes and offices the telephone will give the daily weather 
prediction to those who ask. Weather maps are studied 
by a million children in our schools, and many pupils 




Stations From Which Weather Reports are Sent Daily or 
Oftener to Washington 

are being taught to make observations in a truly scientific 
manner. 

The Bureau of Entomology is engaged in the study of 
insects. It not only tries to exclude injurious insects 
from the country, but also imports those that are benefi- 
cial. A number of years ago, fig tree growers in Cali- 
fornia found that the fruit did not develop as it did 
in its Old World home. Upon investigation it was found 
that there a certain insect carries pollen from the flowers 
of a worthless variety to those of the fruit-bearing tree, 
and thus fertilizes them. When these facts were dis- 



3i6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

covered, and the insects were imported, the industry 
became profitable. The citron industry of Cahfornia is 
greatly benefited by the work of the government's experts 
in finding beneficial insects and importing them from 
abroad. 

The Biological Survey studies wild animals and plants. 
It helps to enforce laws protecting game and other wild 
animals. In order to prevent hunters from exterminating 
certain kinds of birds, especially those whose feathers 
are valuable, bird reserves have been established. The 
scientists in this ofhce examine the stomachs of birds to 
discover whether they are injurious to crops. 

The Forest Survey studies the subject of trees in 
order to learn the ways in which they are related to the 
farmers' interests. It also encourages the pupils in the 
public schools to observe trees during the different 
seasons of the year. For this purpose, it sends to schools 
blanks wherein the pupils may make record of the leafing, 
budding, and other changes in the trees which they see 
daily. This much neglected matter is thus beginning 
to receive the attention it deserves. 

In the past, our waste of trees has been almost criminal. 
The farmers' fields have suffered enormous damage 
from erosion and from floods because of the reckless 
clearing of forests. The Survey now has charge of the 
great national forest reserves,^ and keeps there a small 
army of rangers who protect the trees and keep a sharp 
lookout for forest fires. Through the Survey we are 
being told that the wood crop of the farmer should be 

^ The locations of the bird and forest reserves, also the Indian 
reservations and irrigation projects, are shown on the Sanford American 
History Maps. (A. J. Nystrom & Co., Chicago.) 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



317 



planted, cared for, and harvested by scientific methods. 
Thus it will become a valuable asset, not only to the 
individual farmer, but to the nation as well. 

The subject of good roads is one upon which the Ameri- 
can pubHc, especially the farmers, need much education. 
Only within recent years has particular attention been 
given to it. This has been in part the result of work 




First Object Lesson Road Built by Office of Public Roads, 
Atlanta, Ga., 1895 



done by the Department of Agriculture, through its 
Office of Pubhc Roads. This Office gathers and publishes 
information about the making and care of roads. It 
offers instruction as to the materials suitable for public 
highways and also sends out construction crews to actually 
build short stretches of road, so that local authorities 
may see how the work should be done. In one year, 
recently, it built 134 miles of such roads, in various 
places, and thus encouraged the building of several 
times as many miles by those who witnessed the work. 
The most important pubhcations of the Department 



3i8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

of Agriculture, besides the Reports of the Secretary, are 
the Year Book and the Farmers' Bulletins. Recently 
there has been established the Weekly News Letter — 
a very interesting and valuable periodical which aims to 
keep farmers informed of recent events and improve- 
ments in the agricultural world. Of all its publications, 
the Department printed in 191 2 more than thirty-four 
million copies. That the information thus printed is 
considered valuable is shown by the number of requests 
received for these documents. While in 1897 these 
requests numbered some five hundred each week, in 191 2 
there were fifty-two thousand weekly. What better 
evidence could one wish that the ideas and practices of 
scientific farming are spreading? And yet, as stated in 
Chapter XXIII, a large proportion of the farmers of the 
country are still untouched by the newer scientific ideas, 
or have only begun to put them into practice. The 
Department of Agriculture, the colleges, and the experi- 
ment stations have accumulated an enormous mass of 
scientific facts — enough to revolutionize our agriculture 
within a few years, if they were fully acted upon. All of 
these facts may be found by the farmers in books and 
pamphlets that are to be had free of charge. Neverthe- 
less, one more step has been lacking to make our agricul- 
ture really scientific: i.e. farmers must not only learn 
but also act upon this scientific information. It is said 
that on our American farms the application of scientific 
agriculture is twenty-five years behind the discovery 
and publication of the facts. 

Now, as has been said before, most farmers are by 
nature slow to accept new ideas and to put them into 
practice. They demand to be shown first. Hence, the 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 319 

third great step, demonstrating how scientific agriculture 
will work when put into practice, has already been begun 
by the Department of Agriculture. 




Cotton Boll Weevil 

This work had its origin in the years when the boll 
weevil was ruining the cotton crop of the South. This 
pest coming into Texas from Mexico, began its destruc- 




tive work about 1892. It spread gradually, at the rate 
of forty or fifty miles a year, all efiforts to check its 
progress being in vain. Finally, it destroyed milhons of 



320 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

dollars' worth of cotton each year. In 1904, Dr. Seaman 
A. Knapp, one of the grand figures of our agricultural 
history, was sent to the afflicted district by the Bureau 
of Plant Industry. Dr. Knapp studied the weevil and 
induced the planters to so plan the work of the cotton 
fields that they were enabled to grow cotton in spite of 
this pest. By early planting and shallow cultivation, 
the cotton plant was forced to maturity before the weevil 
could do much damage. 

As a part of his work, Dr. Knapp organized the Farmers' 
Cooperative Demonstration work, which has spread 
through many sections of the South, and is being put into 
operation in other states. The plan is this: from a 
central office, traveling agents are sent out, who induce 
several farmers of a county each to devote a small acreage 
to a certain standard crop, the Department furnishing 
the seed. The farmers agree to cultivate these crops 
according to the directions furnished them. This work 
is guided both by correspondence and by consultation 
with the agent. The agent holds meetings on these 
''demonstration farms," gathering there not only the 
farmers of the vicinity, but also business men and 
others. 

Notv, if there is virtue in the seed and in the scientific 
methods prescribed by the directors of this work, the 
result will show in better crops; and this has proved to 
be the case. Corn crops have been from fifty to one 
hundred and fifty per cent larger, and cotton crops have 
averaged from forty to more than one hundred and 
fifty per cent larger on these demonstration farms 
than elsewhere. Thus, by actual tests, the farmers 
are being shown that deeper plowing, better drainage, 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



321 



selected seed, intensive cultivation, the us^ of fertilizers,' 
and rotation will do all that has been claimed for them 
by the chemists, the biologists, and all the other experts 
and professors who have for many years been teaching 
these things. 

In connection with this work, Dr. Knapp also began 




Boys' Corn Club 

the organization of boys' corn clubs. Each boy who 
joined such a club agreed to cultivate an acre of corn 
under the direction of the Department of Agriculture. 
At first, local bankers and business men subscribed 
money to purchase the best seed. The boy members 
of these clubs agreed to study the literature sent out by 
the Department and to follow its directions exactly. 
In many instances, when this was done, the boys' crops 
went far ahead of those raised by their fathers! 



32 2 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

Then there were prizes given, generally by the business 
men, in each locality. Other prizes were awarded at 
county and State fairs. In 1909, the boy winners of 
State prizes in Mississippi, Arkansas, Virginia, and 
South Carolina were given by the Department a trip to 
Washington, where they spent a week ''seeing the sights." 

This is only the beginning of the story of farm demon- 
stration work. The corn clubs were followed by clubs 
for raising many other products, including swine. Girls' 
canning clubs were next organized, for raising and preserv- 
ing tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits. 

The success of this woik in the South has led to the 
conviction that if a traveling agent, spending a Httle 
time in each of several counties, could accompHsh so much, 
then very much larger results would follow if each 
county had its permanent agricultural expert. How 
this is actually coming about will be stated in a later 
chapter. (See Chapter xxix.) 

The work of the Department of Agriculture, so far 
described, has to do with better methods, better crops, 
and the prevention of loss. Its work does not stop here, 
for recently (19 13) there was established an Office of 
Markets and Rural Organization, a part of whose work 
has to do with better living on the farm. A statement 
of what has been and may yet be accomplished along 
this line belongs properly to another part of our story. 



CHAPTER XXV 
THE NEW SOUTH 

In the South, agriculture has always been the most 
important industry; but, in spite of this fact, it is the 
section where agriculture has been most backward. 
Now, however, there are hopeful signs of progress, show- 
ing the possibility of a new era. The South, where now 
only one-fourth of the land is improved, may yet become 
the garden spot of America. 

It has been said (Chapter XVII) that during the Civil 
War the slaves stayed on the plantations raising the 
crops as usual. This was not true in the regions that 
were invaded by the armies. Here, during the war, 
and throughout the South after the war, the negroes 
left the plantations either to follow the Union armies 
or to go to the nearest town or city. Some merely 
wanted, they said, "to try their freedom on." 

When the planters returned home after the war, they 
found decay and ruin everywhere. Buildings and fences 
had not been kept in repair, implements and live-stock 
had disappeared, fields were either barren and eroded or 
covered with weeds and bushes, and often houses and 
barns had been destroyed. At Appomattox, in April, 
1865, General Grant showed that he realized the needs 
of the small farmers in the Confederate army when he 
told them to keep their horses, as they would need them 



324 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

for the spring plowing. But where were the planters to» 
find laborers for their broad cotton fields? 

At first an effort was made to keep the old plantations 
and to have them worked by the negroes as hired laborers. 
Some of the negroes, after a time of idleness, consented 
to work for wages. Two methods were tried. One was 
the ''standing wage" system, under which the farm 
hands were not paid wages until the end of six months 
or a year. The idea here was to keep the negroes on 
the farms. The annual wages varied from $50 to $100. 
Under the ''part standing wage" system the negroes 
were given wages monthly, and in addition each had the 
use of three or four acres of land which he could work in 
his spare time. 

But under either system the negroes did not like to 
have the planters exercise control over them, and they 
no sooner got a few dollars than they quit work and 
refused to return. The cotton might be choked with 
weeds or the bolls be spoiling to be picked, but Sambo 
with a few weeks' wages in his pocket was a free man, 
and loafed and played until his money was gone. Thus 
the wage system was soon found to be a failure. 

Next, an effort was made to have the negroes work the 
plantations on shares, each family receiving at the end 
of the year a portion of the cotton raised. Under the 
"four day cropping system," the negroes worked four 
days for the farmer and two days for themselves — land, 
seed, and implements being furnished by the farmer. But, 
again, the negroes were restive under the control of their 
work by the planters. Consequently, in most cases the 
plantations were divided into small tracts, each worked 
by a negro family on shares, the white owner still furnish- 



THE NEW SOUTH 325 

, ing stock, seed, and implements, as well as land and 
buildings. Under this system, with less control, crops 
became smaller because the negro worked fewer hours 
and with less intelligence. Nevertheless, because he 
wanted still more independence, the share system has 
been in many cases abandoned in favor of a pure rental 
system. Under this plan the white owner furnishes only 
land and buildings and the negro tenant manages the 
farm in his own way, paying rent either in cash or in 
cotton. 

At present, besides the large and increasing class of 
small white farmers, who were numerous in the South 
before the Civil War, there may also be found many 
owners of large plantations. But everywhere the South- 
ern farmer, whether black or white, is burdened to a 
.great extent by the credit system. Either because he 
is without capital, or is shiftless, or because his land is 
becoming exhausted, he is compelled to borrow or to get 
suppHes on credit between crops. He gets credit from 
the local merchant or money lender. The security 
demanded is a ''Hen" on the cotton of the next crop; 
so he is bound to continue planting that crop. 

Under this ''lien system," the farmer who is in debt 
to a merchant is in a particularly hard situation. The 
merchant has two prices for his goods, a cash and a 
credit price, the latter being the higher. The farmer is 
under agreement to get all his supplies of the merchant; 
and the latter charges enough to cover not only a very 
high rate of interest, but sometimes in addition the 
expense of an agent who looks after his security. At 
the end of the year, the crop may not be valuable enough 
to pay the debt at the store. So the poor farmer is forced 



326 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



to renew the contract; or, he shifts to another farm, in 
a hopeless effort to better his condition. 

It thus came about in the South, during the years 
immediately after the Civil War, that the mass of the 
negroes worked under either the share or the tenant 
system. Many of the poor white farmers also became 
tenants. The typical farm under any of these systems 
was the ''one-mule farm" that is still too common in 
the South. Concerning it, a writer in the Year Book of 
the Department of Agriculture (1908) says: ''The one- 
mule farmer can scratch 3 or 4 inches deep with his one- 




Shallow Plowing and Poor Crops 



mule plow from 10 to 12 acres in as many days. If he 
plows in the fall the winter rains wash his shallow soil 
away, or repack it. He plants his cotton and corn with 
a Kttle fertihzer, which he purchases with money bor- 
rowed by mortgaging his future cotton crop. His seed 
is simply ordinary cotton and corn. His cultivation of 
the growing crop is necessarily laborious and time con- 
suming from lack of proper horse-power and tools. He 
and his family are too busy walking back and forth, 
hoeing the weeds and grass out of the cotton and corn, 
to look after a garden, to raise chickens and pigs, or to 
take care of a cow. 



THE NEW SOUTH 327 

*'The one-mule farmer gets at best one-third of a bale 
of cotton and 10 bushels of corn per acre. The value of 
these hardly pays his rent, his fertilizer bill, and his bill 
for food and clothing. Year after year he goes through 
the same routine. His children escape to the first factory 
or mill that comes into their neighborhood." 

This represents a very low stage of farming, and it is 
no wonder that the results are small. The Country 
Life Commission reported that ''the average income 
of the tenant farmer growing cotton is $150 a year, and 
the family does not usually raise its poultry, meat, fruit, 
vegetables, or breadstuffs." 

Thus it is still true, as it was before the Civil War, 
that Southern farms do not as a whole supply agricultural 
products for their own consumption. The Secretary of 
Agriculture, in his report for 1914, states that the farm 
homes in Georgia produce, on the average, less than two 
eggs a week. Of butter they produce on the average 
about two-thirds of an ounce, and of milk about two- 
thirds of a pint, each day. The average yearly product of 
these farms is only one-third of a hog, one-twelfth of a 
beef, and one-hundredth of a sheep. With this output, 
the yearly cotton crop does not pay for the food that is 
purchased. In twelve of the Southern states there are 
still large importations of wheat, corn, and oats. Texas 
annually spends $50,000,000 for these grains;. Georgia 
and South Carolina each nearly half as much. 

This is a view of the discouraging side of Southern agri- 
culture; but there are signs of better things for the 
South as a whole. One of these is the increase in the 
number of farms actually owned by negroes. Many 
white people do not realize how difficult it is for the 



328 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



negroes to acquire habits of industry and thrift after 
Kving for generations under a system of forced labor. 
But many of them are now succeeding. It is said that 
200,000 negroes own their own farms; that these farms 
now amount to some 20,000,000 acres; and that the 




Part of the Bfildixcs at Tuskegee Institute 

total value of farm property owned by negroes is $500,- 
000,000. It is now a little more than fifty years since 
the Emancipation Proclamation was issued; with such 
beginnings, what may not the negro farmer accomplish 
in the next half-century? 

Much credit for the progress of negro farmers may be 
given to Hampton Institute, Virginia, and Tuskegee 
Institute, Alabama. Here thousands of young men and 
women have learned the gospel of good farming. The 
influence of Booker T. Washington ^ in raising the stand- 
ards of work and Kving was very great. He called 

1 By the death of Mr. Washington, in November, 19 15, the negro 
people of the country have been deprived of a great leader. 



THE NEW SOUTH 329 

attention to the fact that for many generations under 
slavery the negro did the lowest kind of labor. Under a 
system of forced labor he did not learn to be steady and 
dependable when not under control. Like other unin- 
telligent farmers, he was at first careless and thriftless; 
he was unwilling to practice mixed farming, to take care 
of stock, to buy improved implements, or to cultivate 
with care. In fact, the traditions of his life were all 
against any such ways of farming. Now, the effort of 
the negro's friends is to make him believe that advance 
is possible, and that he, as well as the white man, may 
lead a dignified rural life and be respected by all his 
neighbors. 

The work of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, in connection with 
the Farm Demonstration work, has been described (pages 
319-321). This work kindled a new spirit among the 
farmers of the South. In the decade between 1900 and 
1910, Southern agriculture advanced faster than that of 
any other section, in respect to increased value of land, 
buildings, live-stock, and machinery. Its annual produc- 
tion of farm crops more than doubled in value in the 
ten years. An appreciation of the value of rotation of 
crops and the use of legumes (clover, cow peas, alfalfa, 
etc.) to restore the soil is fast spreading. 

The white farmers of the South now raise a larger 
proportion of the entire cotton crop than they did before 
the Civil War. Cotton culture has spread to new districts 
of the South, but exhaustion of the soil is very common. 
Still, for the last decade the price of cotton has been 
good, and this has given hope as well as capital to the 
farmers. In former times cotton seed was thrown away; 
now its immense value is found in the oil extracted from 



330 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



it, and in its use as feed and fertilizer. Improved ma- 
chinery helps to plant, cultivate, and gin a better crop; 
while it seems that the day of a practical cotton-picking 
machine is really at hand. New crops are being success- 
fully raised in the South — rice on the Gulf coast, and 
even in Arkansas and Missouri; garden products to 
supply the Northern demand; and fruits and nuts, 
as never before. There is also sugar culture with im- 











Harvesting Rice in Louisiana 



proved machinery, such as disk plows, harrows, and 
cane harvesters. Stock is being improved, and fer- 
tilization and drainage are coming into extensive use 
for the first time in Southern history, bringing new 
life to the black soil of the old cotton belt. 

In all the Southern states there are departments of 
agriculture that are doing much to educate the people 
upon the subject of scientific farming. Experiment 
stations and farms are becoming numerous. Such work 
as that of the Agricultural College of South Carolina in 
sending out an agricultural train, and that of the North 
Carolina farmers' institutes and the Georgia ''cotton 
school" is becoming more common every year. It is 
said that there are 40,000 demonstration farms in the 



THE NEW SOUTH 331 

South, on which farmers are planting and cultivating 
crops according to the advice and direction of leaders, 
who in turn are in touch either with state agricultural 
authorities or experts sent out by the United States 
Department of Agriculture. As a single instance of 
what is being done: one of these demonstration farms in 
Mississippi raised 445 pounds of lint cotton to the acre, 
when the average product for the state is 228 pounds. 

In a previous chapter the organization of corn and 
canning clubs for boys and girls was described. These 
clubs are now found in nearly every county of the South, 
and county boards are offering prizes for their best 
products. Through this work, the selection of seed, 
fertilization, and the best use of land are being taught. 
At the same time there are lectures, public meetings for 
discussion, more agricultural papers, and the teaching 
of agriculture in the rural schools. These facts show only 
the beginnings of the new movement in the South; its 
possibilities for the future one can scarcely overestimate. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
IRRIGATION AND DRY FARMING 

Something has been said in earlier pages about the 
irrigation systems maintained by the Pueblo Indians, 
at the time of the discovery of America, in parts of the 
United States now known as New Mexico and Arizona 
(see pp. 8-9). The early Spanish explorers were aston- 
ished to find in this barren region fruitful fields and 
gardens. There were also the ruins of irrigation works 
that had been built at a much earlier date. 

In Chapter XV a brief account was given of the Spanish 
missionaries who went northward from Old Mexico and 
established missions in Southern CaUfornia and Texas. 
The art of irrigating was highly developed in Mexico at 
that time, and it was applied upon the farms and orchards 
that surrounded these early missions. 

The first Americans to use irrigation in agriculture 
were the Mormons, who began the settlement of Utah 
in 1847. 0^^* histories tell of the persecutions that drove 
the people of this sect from their homes in Missouri to 
Illinois, and how, later, they went from Nauvoo in Illinois 
into the almost unknown wilderness of the "Great Ameri- 
can Desert." Almost the entire Nauvoo settlement, com- 
prising 15,000 persons, with large droves of cattle, flocks 
of sheep, and other animals, travelled across the state of 
Iowa and rested for a time in eastern Nebraska. From 
here a band of their leaders went to find a place of settle- 



IRRIGATION AND DRY FARMING 



333 



ment beyond the mountains. This advance company 
stopped, late in July, 1847, near the Great Salt Lake, 
and at once began to plant crops in order to raise food for 
the coming winter season. 

The site was in many ways most unpromising. A white 
crust of alkali covered the ground, which was baked so 






■rI«r-Uji<WA^*- 



Arid Land before Irrigation 




The Same Land after Irrigation 




hard that some of their plows were broken in the 
effort to plow it. Sagebrush and scattered tufts of 
bunch grass were the only signs of vegetation, except the 
small trees which grew along the few water courses. 
But the spirits of these men, moved by religious zeal, 
were undaunted. Probably they had never seen irriga- 
tion practiced, or even heard of it. But an ingenious 



334 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

member of the band suggested that the creek near by be 
dammed, and thus the spreading waters softened the 
hard soil and at the same time watered the newly planted 
seed. Such was the beginning of irrigation by American 
farmers. Their grain did not develop that year, owing 
to the lateness of the season, but their potatoes did, and 
the settlers were thus furnished with seed for the next 
spring planting. 

Year after year, bands of Mormons followed the long 
and difficult trail across the plains and through the 
mountain passes to Utah. Often storms and Indians 
proved fatal enemies to the travellers. But the settle- 
ment grew rapidly through the coming of recruits, not 
only from their former Illinois home, but from the East 
and from foreign countries as well. During their first 
year in Utah (1848), the Mormons adopted a system of 
land ownership and control that had many interest- 
ing features. Each head of a family was given a house 
lot of one and a quarter acres in the city. Farm lands 
were also given to settlers in tracts varying from ten to 
eighty acres, according to the distance from town and 
the circumstances of the owner. Those who followed 
occupations in town were given five-acre lots outside as 
garden plots. All might pasture their stock in the 
common field. 

The necessity under which these people worked accounts 
for the strong spirit of cooperation that we find among 
them. They were obliged to raise crops enough to sustain 
the community, which was almost entirely cut oE from 
the outside world. In order to raise crops, water was 
necessary, so they dug a ditch which was owned in com- 
mon. Under these circumstances, also, farms had to 



IRRIGATION AND DRY FARMING 335 

be small. Hence the farmhouses were grouped in little 
villages, and everybody worked for the common good. 
The fact that the authorities of the Mormon Church pos- 
sessed and exercised absolute power over the people also 
accounts for their manner of life. 

We find in the conditions that existed among the 
early Mormons in Utah some features that are similar 
to the New England town farm Hfe described on pp. 27- 
31; and also features similar to the life of the French 
settlers in the Mississippi valley, as described on pp. 
I73~i75- ^^ the first instance, the English custom and 
the religious practices of the Puritans account for the 
community method of settlement and farming. The 
French also followed the custom of their mother country. 
The Mormon farm communities were molded by the 
necessity of the situation in an isolated, arid region. In 
all three cases, the danger of Indian attacks drew the 
settlers together, and so helped to remove the temptation 
to settle upon scattered farms. 

The first spring after the Mormons reached their new 
home saw some five thousand acres under cultivation. 
Then came a calamity. Swarms of locusts, or grass- 
hoppers, descended and devoured the growing crops. 
But soon, from the Great Salt Lake, came flocks of gulls 
that devoured the insects, so a little of the harvest was 
saved. But the next winter was a time of privation in 
the Mormon settlement. This condition was relieved 
by the arrival of many miners on their way to the newly 
discovered gold mines of California. These travellers 
bought horses, meats, and food at good prices, and sold 
articles needed by the Mormons. 

A few years later an agricultural society was formed 



336 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

and prizes were offered .for the best farm products. The 
legislature of Utah also offered prizes. Because this 
colony in the wilderness had to be almost self-sustaining, 
mixed farming was adopted, and this was favorable for 
its prosperity. 

Next we find irrigation beginning in California, near 
the gold mines. The water trickling from a sluice often 





An Irjeugated 1^'ield 

showed that vegetation would grow in desert soils if 
properly watered. Great profits could be realized from 
vegetables grown near the mines, so abandoned ditches 
and sluices were used for irrigation. The same condi- 
tions also brought about irrigation near the newly dis- 
covered mines of the Pike's Peak region in Colorado. 

Another interesting story in which irrigation played 
a part is that of the settlement at Greeley, Colorado. 
In 1869, Nathan C. Meeker, who was then connected 
with the New York Tribune, was encouraged by Horace 
Greeley, the great editor of that paper, to carry out a 



IRRIGATION AND DRY FARMING 337 

plan that he had formed for making a settlement in 
Colorado. Soon a number of Eastern men and their 
families came to the site of Greeley and founded the 
Union Colony of Colorado. 

Here the community owned the land; each person ob- 
tained a village lot and bought from the colony a farm 
besides. The proceeds of these sales were spent in 
building public improvements — a school, library, town 
hall, etc. The people also built and owned an irrigation 
system. At first there were hard times; blizzards and 
locusts almost wiped out the little community. Said 
one of their number: "Some of us were pretty well 
pegged out in the contest, and some of us were already 
dead." But these were persistent pioneers, with high 
ideals of home and community life. They overcame the 
results of their misfortunes and won the victory that 
meant prosperity. They found that their soil would 
produce the best of potatoes in quantities that yielded 
large profits. Alfalfa, too, was planted, and a plow was 
invented for turning it under. Moved by the success of 
Greeley, other settlers founded agricultural communities 
in the neighboring counties. 

The beginnings of irrigation in Utah, California, and 
Colorado showed the wonderful possibilities of this 
method of farming. With abundant sunshine, and a 
never-failing supply of water, always under control, 
grains, fruits, and vegetables grew surprisingly well. 
At first, each farmer carried on irrigation for himself; 
but there were some serious objections to this plan. 
When individual farmers built dams and ditches, it was 
soon found that their interests were apt to conflict. A 
ditch tapping a certain stream might deprive the farmers 



338 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

further down its course of a proper supply of water. 
Hence legal troubles arose, and it was necessary for the 
state legislatures to pass laws defining the rights of water 
users. Then, too, it was soon found that irrigation 
works were necessary on a larger scale than the in- 
dividual settler could afford to build. Hence, in the 
period beginning about 1870, many irrigation compa- 
nies were formed in the arid districts. These companies 
sold shares of stock, thus obtaining money with which to 
build the dams and ditches for systems that watered 
many square miles of land. They also received payments 
from farmers at certain amounts per acre for the water 
rights that the latter enjoyed. In many cases the irriga- 
tion companies met financial failure because the lands 
were not settled quickly enough, or because the settlers 
could not afford to pay the water rentals during the 
first few years of farming on the new land. 

In 1894 Congress passed the Carey Act, with the pur- 
pose of opening to settlement the arid portions of the 
public domain. This law gave to any state the control 
of a million acres of arid public lands within its borders. 
The state might make a contract with an irrigation 
company, which in turn constructed an irrigation system 
for a certain district. The state then sold land in this 
irrigated district, and the company sold the water rights 
to settlers. After both had been paid for, the water 
users formed an association that finally owned the irriga- 
tion system. 

A new epoch in the history of irrigation began when 
Congress passed the Reclamation Act in 1902. Under 
this system, when the government sells land in any of 
the states of the Far West, the proceeds are put into a 



IRRIGATION AND DRY FARMING 



339 






fund that is spent for building irrigation systems. Then 
farmers may take up, either by purchase or under the 
Homestead Law, 
land that will be 
reached by the water. 
When such an irri- 
gation system is in 
operation, the farm- 
ers are to pay back 
to the government, 
in ten annual pay- 
ments, an amount 
that will finally equal 
the cost of the sys- 
tem. This can then 
be reinvested in an 
irrigation project in 
another locality. 

By 19 13, irrigation 
works costing over 
$13,000,000 were 
completed, and 
others were under 
construction. In bringing the water to these desert lands 
some remarkable work has been done by the govern- 
ment's engineers. There is, for instance, near Boise, 
Idaho, the highest dam in the world; in New Mexico 
the largest artificial lake (sixty-five square miles); and 
in Colorado the largest tunnel. There are over 7,300 
miles of canals bringing water to 14,200 farms that in- 
clude more than a million acres. On these lands, crops 
worth $2,000,000 are now raised yearly. 




Irrigation Projects of the U. S. 

Government 

Sites X)f dams and reservoirs. 



340 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



The results of this important work, however, have 
in some ways been unsatisfactory. The greatest diffi- 
culty, perhaps, is the fact that farmers to occupy the 

irrigated sections have 
neither been numerous 
enough nor, in some 
cases, of the right kind. 
The length of time that 
is required for a farmer 
to learn the proper 
methods of irrigation 
farming has been under- 
estimated. So, too, his 
ability to make pay- 
ments during the first 
few years of settlement 
has been overestimated. 
The cost of constructing 
the systems has also 
been higher than was 
expected. Unforeseen 
problems have appeared 
after the water was turned onto the land: for example, 
difficulties in drainage, and the bad effects that some- 
times follow the irrigation of alkah lands. As a result, 
further construction work has been halted, and farmers 
have been given additional time in which to make pay- 
ments for land and water rights. 

Some interesting results have followed in agricultural 
communities where irrigation is used. Scientific irriga- 
tion goes far towards making farming a certainty, so far 
as results are concerned. Then, too, because irrigation 




Irrigation Canal, Platte Canon 



342 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

involves expense, and land becomes very valuable, 
intensive farming and scientific methods are necessary. 
Moreover, farms are of necessity smaller than elsewhere. 
In many instances farmhouses are built in villages, as 
they are in Europe. Where this is true, a more active 
social life is possible, centering in schools, churches, and 
other organizations. Cooperation is also encouraged. 
When men live and work together in harmony, the spirit 
of good will and a democratic feehng are quite sure to 
prevail. It then becomes possible for men to advance 
to a higher plane of living than that of mere money- 
getting; and thus are corrected some of the evils that 
became apparent when Americans occupied the wide 
prairies of the interior. 

Between the region of adequate rainfall and the arid 
mountain lands of the Far West Hes a strip known as 
the semi-arid district. The rush of settlers into Kansas 
and Nebraska after the Civil War carried many eager 
settlers beyond the limit of reliable rainfall. During a 
few wet years in the early eighties, thousands of them 
entered the semi-arid district. When the dry years 
came, their crops died and they saw all the savings of 
years wasting away before their eyes. There followed a 
time of the greatest suffering and privation. Many 
farms were mortgaged; many were abandoned. 

After these settlers realized that they were in the 
region of insufhcient rainfall, some were encouraged to 
remain by the belief that the settlernent of such a country 
increases the rainfall. In other words, it was the theory 
that the cultivation of crops and the growing of trees 
causes greater precipitation. Some held a theory that 
rainfall may be produced by artificial means, especially 



IRRIGATION AND DRY FARMING 343 

by the explosion of heavy discharges at high altitudes. 
The United States government even tried experiments 
of this nature. Elaborate preparations were made for 
setting off explosives from balloons; and, as reported by 
the officer in charge, the result was "a, loud noise." 

Meanwhile, facts in connection with irrigation were 
being learned that were to prove very helpful to the 




Durum Wheat Under Dry Farming in Wyoming 

farmers of the semi-arid region. In Utah, it was dis- 
covered on one occasion that, when an irrigation system 
broke down, crops nevertheless grew. Interesting results 
followed experiments that were tried in Utah, Colorado, 
and Washington, before 1880. It was found that by 
deep plowing, especially in the fall, and by frequent 
cultivation of a field after the crop was taken off in the 
summer, the moisture could be kept from evaporating. 
In dry years, then, good crops could be raised. This was 
the beginning of "dry farming." 



344 



AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 



The man who became most prominent in the study and 
practice of dry farming was H. W. Campbell, whose 
farm was located in the northern part of South Dakota. 
After a severe crop failure, he set about finding a remedy 
for the disasters of dry years. It was his idea that the 
soil should be packed somewhat below the surface, and 
then that the surface should be thoroughly pulverized. 
Thus evaporation would be prevented. Mr. Campbell 
invented a sub-soil packer with which to carry out his 
idea. The result of his work was that he raised fine 
crops when other farmers failed. He was later employed 
by railroad companies to teach the methods of dry farm- 
ing to western farmers and to run model farms. 

As fully developed, dry farming calls for the following 
steps in cultivation: disking and plowing the land after 
the harvest, followed by the use of the sub-surface packer 
and the smoothing harrow. The land is disked deeply 
after each rain, and in alternate years, or more often if 
necessary, is tilled throughout the summer, without 
raising a crop. 

Much enthusiasm for dry farming was awakened over 
the success of Campbell and others, and the railroads 
and experiment stations took up the matter, giving aid 
and advice to farmers in the dry belt. In 1907 a Dry 
Farming Congress was held at Denver. Many milhon 
acres of land have been opened for settlement and culture 
that had before seemed hopelessly arid. But perhaps 
the best result has been that once more farmers have 
been shown how study and investigation into the laws of 
nature, rather than reliance upon tradition and guess- 
work methods, will overcome the greatest obstacles in 
agriculture. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 

Americans have been called a wasteful people. The 
truth of this charge must be admitted when we compare 
their ways of living and some of their business methods 
with those of peoples in certain foreign countries. Per- 
haps in no other business has waste been more general 
than in farming. By waste in farming is meant lack of 
economy in the use of land and labor, and in the conduct 
of business transactions. The reckless wearing out of 
our land, for example, has been so frequently mentioned 
that no further explanation of it is needed. Scientific 
farming is now teaching better methods in the treatment 
of the soil. Again, all the different ways in which animal 
and plant diseases are being checked are merely methods 
of preventing waste. 

The waste of labor has been caused by the farmers' 
slowness in adopting improved machinery; this is now 
being rapidly overcome. But farmers are only beginn'ng 
to realize that they are also wasteful in the management 
of their business, and that better business practices are 
just as necessary as better machinery and better methods 
of cultivation. 

What is meant by ''better business methods" on the 
farm? Very much the same as would be meant if any 
other industry were in question. In fact, we are now 
realizing that farming is a business, just as are manufac- 
turing, commerce, and transportation; and we see that 



346 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

in respect to improved business methods it has lagged 
behind the others. In the latter industries there is much 
organization and careful management of details, and also 
much study of economical methods. But how may the 
average American farmer know, for instance, that he is 
distributing his time and labor upon the various parts 
of his work in the most economical manner? ''How 
many farmers," asks the Agricultural Year Book for 1908, 
''can tell what it costs to make a bushel of grain or a ton 
of hay, a pound of meat or butter, a quart of milk, or a 
dozen eggs?" Have not farmers from the beginning ar- 
ranged their crops and their work in a hit-or-miss fash- 
ion, based upon guess-work or upon custom? In fact, 
they have had no guide in such matters, except "experi- 
ence," which might be either good or bad. 

As a result of the lack of proper management in farm- 
ing, it is estimated that the average farmer is paid, for 
his hard labor and his investment of capital, only fair 
wages and a low rate of interest — from two to four per 
cent. In no other line of business would the proprietor 
and manager be satisfied with such small returns. In 
fact, in many cases, farmers would do better to sell their 
property, invest its value elsewhere, and work for wages. 
These statements are not true, however, where land is 
new, or where scientific methods are followed. 

One reason for the general condition noted above is 
the failure of farmers to ascertain whether certain parts 
of their business are profitable or not. Often they do 
not know whether it is more profitable to keep stock or 
to sell it; to break a meadow or to keep it in hay or pas- 
ture; to feed a crop or to market it. Many times they 
do not know whether a horse or a cow pays for its cost. 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 347 

These things cannot be known without accurate methods 
of keeping accounts, such as are employed in other lines 
of business. In recent years we have seen the begin- 
nings of interest in farm accounting, which is certain to 
remedy these defects. 

If the farmers may be blamed at some points for their 
lack of business success, there are other ways in which 
they are not so much to blame. One reason for poor 
business methods in agriculture is lack of organization. 
While those who manage city industries (manufacturing, 
banking, mercantile business, and transportation) have 
taken step after step in the last half century to combine 
their capital and to work in harmony, most farmers have 
been isolated, each individual working independently. 
This comes from the scattered location of their farms and 
from the nature of farming itself. But it places the farmer 
face to face with a combination of those with whom he 
deals in other lines of business. Cooperation in farming, 
while it has had some success, as will be seen, is not yet 
widespread. 

Before the Civil War farmers began to realize that they 
were at a disadvantage in dealing with merchants and 
railroad companies, and about 1850 they began to form 
societies to secure better terms. In 1858 there were 
nearly a thousand such organizations. The Civil War 
seems to have interrupted the progress of this movement. 
The dairy business, as stated in Chapter XXII, was one 
of the earhest in which farmers combined for their own 
advantage. Cooperative societies of this kind are still 
flourishing, there being in the United States in 19 14 
more than two thousand creameries conducted on this 
plan, besides several hundred cooperative cheese factories. 



348 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

After the Civil War, other cooperative farmers' organ- 
izations were formed in connection with the Granger 
movement (see Chapter XIX). When the farmers were 
suffering from hard times and unfair treatment, they 
were driven to combine in order to fight certain abuses. 
At this time they formed a large number of selling asso- 
ciations, as well as cooperative stores where they could 
make purchases. While some of these enterprises were 
successful, many others failed. 

There were several reasons for the failures. Lack of 
good business methods was one, the farmers not being 
trained in this respect. Another was lack of good bus- 
iness management; they would not pay salaries high 
enough to secure capable business managers. Still 
another reason was suspicion and jealousy, or lack of 
the true spirit of cooperation, among the farmers them- 
selves. However, some good results came from these 
attempts. They helped to bring about the reduction in 
the prices of machinery — reapers from $275 to $175, 
threshers from $300 to $200, wagons from $150 to I75, 
and sewing machines from $75 to $40. Again, it 1ms 
been seen (p. 232) that partly as a result of the agitation 
carried on by the Grange, railway rates were controlled 
and reduced. 

In more recent years other organizations have been 
formed in which cooperative buying and selling is a 
feature. Such are the Society of Equity, the Right Re- 
lationship League, and the Farmers' Educational and Co- 
operative Union of America. The last mentioned society 
reports its members as three million in number, and it 
has, of course, other purposes besides those of business. 

Among the enterprises undertaken during the Granger 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 349 

agitation were the cooperative elevator associations in 
the western states. The owners of the elevators along rail- 
way lines had a monopoly of the business, at many points, 
and paid such prices as they pleased. The farmers' 
cooperative elevator companies increased rapidly in num- 
bers, but later temporarily declined. To-day they are 
about 2700 in number. 

At the time of the Granger movement, many farmers' 
mutual fire insurance companies were also organized. 
Because farm property is peculiarly liable to loss by 
fire, and because it has shght protection, the regular 
insurance companies charged high rates. The farmers' 
companies operated upon two general plans: first, pre- 
miums might be charged, from which expenses and losses 
were paid; second, there might be no premiums, but 
assessments instead, from which losses were paid as they 
occurred. These companies, when well managed, have 
been of great benefit and have greatly reduced insurance 
rates for farmers. Besides taking fire risks, the com- 
panies also write hail, tornado, and live-stock insurance. 

The telephone came into use about 1880; but it was 
not until the patents on the instruments had expired, in 
1893, that rural fines were built. Farmers found it neces- 
sary to combine in order to get this improvement, for the 
telephone companies that served the cities either would 
not build country lines, or charged excessive rates. Con- 
sequently, a group of farmers would form a company, 
turn out to set the poles and string the wires, and then 
pay expenses out of a common fund. In some cases 
they used the top wire of wire fences, instead of building 
a new line. These mutual, independent telephone com- 
panies had many good results. They also had hard 



350 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

experiences, because the larger companies opposed them 
and refused to make connections with city and interurban 
Hnes. Many of the rural companies were afterwards 
bought up by the capitaKst companies. 

As has been stated, in the business of buying and sell- 
ing the farmer who acts for himself is in a particularly 
difficult situation. He must buy at prices agreed upon, 
in many cases, by a group of sellers. He must often sell 
his product for what it will bring, to dealers who combine 
in keeping the price down. Sometimes, the dealer who 
buys from the farmer is also the one who sells to him; 
he thus makes a double profit. 

In recent years the subject of marketing has attracted 
much attention, and many bad conditions have been dis- 
cussed. For instance, it is said upon good authority 
that potatoes sold from the field for $8,500,000 cost the 
people who finally bought and ate them $60,000,000; 
that cabbages sold in New York by farmers for $1,800,000 
brought the retail dealers five times as much; that milk 
for which the dairymen were paid $28,000,000 was finally 
sold for $48,000,000. "Of $146,000,000 paid annually 
by New York City for eggs, milk, onions, and potatoes, 
less than $50,000,000 was received by the farmers." 
Thus, it is estimated that the latter receives on the aver- 
age about thirty-five cents for produce that costs the 
city consumer one dollar. Many farmers, have had 
experiences like that of the Oklahoma melon raisers, who 
received five cents apiece for melons that sold in St. 
Paul and Minneapolis for sixty and seventy-five cents. 
Here, indeed, is great injustice, for it cannot be be- 
lieved that all this expense in handling farm produce 
is necessary. 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 351 

How can farmers get a fair share of the sale prices of 
their commodities? This is a difficult problem, but one 
part of the solution will doubtless come through market- 
ing associations. Indeed, considerable success along this 
line has already been achieved. There are now in the 
country 8,500 marketing associations. Such an organiza- 
tion is apt to be most successful among farmers who 
make a specialty of a certain crop. These have the same 
conditions and problems to face; they sell in the same 
markets and buy their supplies from the same source. 
Examples are found among the growers of such crops as 
apples, celery, tomatoes, onions, and melons. Many of 
these have combined to do business with dealers, and have 
found it profitable. 

The best example of success on a large scale is seen in 
the citrus growers' associations of the Pacific Coast 
states. Soon after 1890, the production of oranges, lem- 
ons, etc. became much less profitable than it had pre- 
viously been. While not one-tenth of the present output 
was then produced, the supply seemed to exceed the de- 
mand. Buyers dictated the prices and there was much 
loss from the spoiling of fruit. Investigations made by 
the Department of Agriculture showed that the decay of 
the fruit was caused largely by careless handling and 
packing. 

Local fruit raisers' societies were then organized to 
meet this problem, and the present California Fruit 
Growers' Exchange is now the most important of the 
organizations which developed out of that need. Its 
work has been successful because skilled gangs of pickers 
and packers, with skilled managers in charge, were em- 
ployed to handle the fruit. Sometimes the fruit was 



352 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

packed at central stations. Strict regulations, which the 
growers must obey, were adopted for the treatment of 
the trees and fruit. By negotiation with distant dealers 
better terms were secured; and the railroads were obliged 
to give better rates. Then, too, the growers organized to 
do the work of irrigation, spraying, and pruning and to 
buy supplies in quantities. The result is that the quality 
of the fruit has been improved and held to a high stand- 
ard; sale for an enormously greater quantity has been 
found; and the growers have learned to act together, 
each finding his own interest in the interests of all. 

In connection with marketing, one cannot fail to see 
the lack of business economy in the carrying of produce 
from farm to market. The cost of hauling by wagon 
over country roads is a matter which farmers are only 
now beginning to study. It is estimated that there are 
at present 2,300,000 miles of country roads in the United 
States. The cost each year of maintaining these roads 
is said to be about $200,000,000. Finally, of this amount, 
good authorities state that from thirty to forty per cent 
is wasted. Of course, the farmers who pay the taxes 
bear the burden of this waste. They also bear the bur- 
dens that poor roads involve in other ways : loss of time 
in travelling back and forth; loss in the unnecessary 
"wear and tear" of wagon and harness; the injury 
done to the horses. Moreover, there is the loss in- 
volved in the farmers' being unable to reach market 
with produce when prices are good. All of these are 
items of which any good business man would keep strict 
account. 

Consider the fact that the average cost of hauling a 
ton one mile on country roads is twenty -five cents; and 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 353 

that on good maGadam roads this cost may be reduced 
to eight cents. Any country boy can make an estimate 
of the actual expense to his father of the hauHng that the 
latter is obliged to do on bad roads. 

The history of road building in the United States is of 
much interest. In colonial times, wherever possible, the 
ocean, bays, and rivers were used for travel and trans- 
portation. The farmers were too busy and too poor to 
spend their time upon the difficult work of making 
roads. Land travel was for the most part on horseback, 
and carrying was by the pack-horse. The saddlebags 
always hung over the pommel of the saddle in front of 
the rider; and two double crotched tree limbs fastened 
together made a secure burden holder on the back of the 
pack-horse. 

Since colonial times, each successive new frontier, from 
Atlantic to Pacific, has offered the same general condi- 
tions and the settlers have suffered from the evils of poor 
roads. After the year 1800, and especially after the War 
of 181 2, great interest was aroused in the subject of road 
building. The East was becoming more thickly settled, 
and the people of the West found that the value of their 
land and crops depended to no small extent upon their 
having easy means of transportation between the two 
sections of the country. 

There followed the great era of road and canal build- 
ing. Scores of toll road companies were organized, and 
they invested their capital in building roads of plank or 
stone. The process of macadamizing had come into use 
about the beginning of the nineteenth century. The 
companies hoped for profits from the collection of tolls. 
At certain distances along the improved roads there 



354 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

were toll houses, with gates. Here the keepers collected 
toll for each person, wagon, or animal that travelled 
over the road. The United States government finally 
took up this important matter and built the National, or 
Cumberland Road, which ran from Maryland to IlHnois, 
and cost more than four million dollars. 

Two events brought an end to this era of road build- 
ing. First, the failure of many turnpike companies, and 
the hard times following the crisis of 1837, discouraged 
such enterprises. Second, the rapid growth of railroads 
at that time seemed to render road building on a large 
scale unnecessary. So it came about that, during the 
half century that followed, Httle attention was paid to 
this subject, with the consequence that the roads from 
the farms to the railway stations suffered. 

This does not mean that no work was done upon these 
roads. They were everywhere in the charge of local com- 
munities, and the most common system for keeping 
them in good condition was that of "working out road 
taxes." The farmers with their teams gathered on cer- 
tain days when farm work was not pressing. While 
spending a fair proportion of their time in loafing and 
gossiping, they managed to scrape more or less dirt into 
the center of the road, from which it was washed by the 
next heavy rain. In the meantime the "improved" road 
was too rough to drive upon, so a new path was made at 
one side; this, in rainy weather, became a sea of mud 
and water. There was no expert direction of this work 
— nothing but the "practical" knowledge of road making 
that every farmer was supposed to have. The result was 
not permanent improvement, but waste. 

This was not only bad road making, but also bad 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 355 

morals and bad citizenship. The farmers who cheated 
the town or county in such ways cheated themselves, and 
set a bad example for the rising generation. Some may 
think this too strong a statement of this great evil in our 
agricultural history, and doubtless there were many cases 
in which the situation was not as bad as that pictured. 
Nevertheless, the system as described did much to re- 
tard rural progress. 

The last twenty-five years have brought about an 
awakening upon this subject. It is now realized that the 
town, or even the county, is too small a unit to have 
entire charge of this important business; and that there 
is a science of road building that is understood only by 
those who have studied it. In 1891, New Jersey became 
the first state to vote aid to the local governments for 
road construction. Numerous other states, in rapid suc- 
cession, followed this example. The work was put in 
charge of capable engineers, and thousands of miles of 
good roads have since been built. 

The work of the Department of Agriculture in foster- 
ing this movement has been mentioned (see p. 317). In 
1893, Congress appropriated money to be spent by the 
Departm^ent in the spread of information upon the sub- 
ject of good roads, and later the appropriations were 
greatly increased. In 191 2, half a million dollars was 
voted by Congress for the aid of state and local govern- 
ments in building roads, on the condition that the latter 
should spend twice as much in taxes as the amount re- 
ceived from the national government. 

The use of bicycles and automobiles has greatly stim- 
ulated the good roads movement. In 19 14, there were 
nearly two million automobiles in the country, and the 






2. Laying the foundation course. 














"H 


, 




«H w. 


-■^ggl jm 


^ 




'-'W 


""H 


v_> jj^^mBB^KKM 


^ 



3. Finishing the road. 

Road Making by the National Government 
This road in Tennessee was selected for improvement as an object lesson. 
The photographs were furnished by the Public Roads Inquiry Office, Dept. 
of Agriculture. 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 357 

$12,000,000 paid to the state and local governments in 
fees by the owners was added to the funds raised by 
taxation for the purpose of road improvement. The ag- 
ricultural colleges in various states now give courses of 
instruction in this subject. So the future of good road 
building seems assured. Meanwhile, the coming of the 
rural free delivery system gave a great impetus to the 
movement, for the service was extended only where 
there were good roads. More recently, the parcel post 
system has had a similar effect, because it makes ready 
access to markets still more desirable. The Department 
of Agriculture holds parcel post exhibits at county fairs 
and elsewhere, showing farmers how products may be 
packed and shipped. Postmasters also furnish lists of 
farmers and consumers, who may thus come into touch 
with each other and deal directly, instead of through 
middlemen. Express companies, under the stress of 
competition, have begun to undertake a similar serv- 
ice. They have special departments working in both 
city and country. In the former they organize con- 
sumers' clubs whose members wish to get products 
direct from the farm. In the country the agents look up 
sources of supply for these customers. Thus the farmers 
get better prices, and the consumers buy fresher pro- 
ducts at lower prices than is the case when commission 
merchants, brokers, and retailers come between them. 

In many sections of the country, trolley hnes and motor 
trucks are helping farmers to solve the difhcult problem 
of marketing. The use of motor trucks, instead of wagons, 
drays, and steam cars, reduces the number of shifts nec- 
essary in hauling farm produce from field to kitchen — 
a great economy. It tends to eliminate some of the 



358 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

middlemen; for, with quicker delivery, the farmer can 
more easily reach the final consumer. 

The trolley line saves a great deal of the farmer's time. 
It enables him to do the work of three days (one each for 
going to town, selling, and returning) in one; or, it does 
away with the all-night hauling for many truck farmers. 
As in the case of hauling on good roads, or hauling by 
truck, the use of the trolley results in a great saving of 
perishable produce, which reaches the consumer in much 
better condition than it otherwise would. Besides, the 
farmer is enabled to reach market when prices are at the 
right stage. 

Farming as a business has always suffered a handicap 
on account of conditions affecting the credit of those 
engaged in it. Farmers as a class are borrowers, but 
perhaps no more so than other business men. Merchants, 
manufacturers, and the managers of corporations, both 
small and great, depend quite largely upon borrowed 
capital; and they must make large enough profits to 
enable them to pay the interest charges. The striking 
feature about loans made to farmers is the high rates of 
interest they are obliged to pay. These rates are consid- 
erably higher than those in any other line of business 
equal in security to that of farming. In New England 
and the Central States, the average rate (six per cent) is 
perhaps not excessive; but in the South and Southwest 
the rates average from eight to twelve per cent; while in 
the Far West they range from ten to as high as fifteen per 
cent. The cotton growers of the South are said to pay, 
on the average, twenty per cent. There are individual 
cases, in that and other sections, where the farmers pay 
even more than this. 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 359 

What reasons may be found for this condition? First, 
we may repeat the general statement that throughout 
our history the farmer has been, on the whole, a poor 
business man. The city capitalist has thus been able to 
take advantage of the farmer's ignorance or carelessness. 
Enough has been said about the credit sytem in the 
South (see p. 325) to explain the trying situation in which 
many a Southern farmer has become involved. It is 
no wonder that his interest rate is so high. 

Previous chapters have emphasized the fact that from 
the beginning much of our farming has been done under 
pioneer conditions, far from the centers where capital 
may be borrowed. Naturally, this fact has caused lenders 
to expect high rates, owing to the uncertainty of the 
security. Then, too, it has been shown that Western 
farming has been largely speculative, i.e. the farmers 
have depended for their profits upon the rise in the value 
of their land, rather than upon yearly crops. In any 
business, of course, speculation increases the risk and so 
raises the interest rates. Under these conditions, also, 
there was (and still is) much poor farming. It has been 
shown (page 293) that there is still very much moving 
about of farmers from one place to another. These con- 
ditions all tend to give the business as a whole the repu- 
tation of being unstable. Consequently, money lenders 
feel justified in charging high rates of interest. 

Let us excuse the really good farmers, and those whose 
farms have solid value, from blame in this connection. 
They suffer from the lower business reputation of their 
neighbors. Moreover, the bankers are in part to blame. 
Hitherto they have not taken such pains as they might 
to investigate the security for farm loans — not so much 



360 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

pains as they take in other lines of business. They have 
not distinguished properly between the good and the 
poor farm loans. There is now a movement among 
bankers to change this situation, which will result in much 
benefit to the farmers who deserve credit on low terms. 

The last reason that may be given for high rates of 
interest on farm loans is lack of cooperation among farm- 
ers. In this, as in other transactions, the individual 
farmer dealing with a combination of city business men 
gets the worst of the bargain. 

It is estimated that the farmers of the country are 
debtors to the amount of more than six billion dollars. 
Moreover, their indebtedness has been increasing. In 
1890, twenty-eight per cent of the farms of the country 
were under mortgages; twenty years later, in 19 10, 
thirty-three per cent were mortgaged. Now, this is not 
necessarily a bad sign, for in these years the value of 
farm property increased at a more rapid rate than the 
indebtedness. Our era of scientific farming and the 
employment of new farm machinery calls for larger in- 
vestments of capital. These new features of farm life, 
while they make borrowing necessary, also make the 
property that is security for the debt more valuable and 
more stable in value. 

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that 
there has begun, within the last five years, a movement 
for making better conditions in the matter of rural credits. 
In 1 9 13, a large commission, composed of delegates from 
twenty-nine states and seven persons appointed by the 
Federal government, went to Europe, where they studied 
this subject. They found that in more than one country 
the farmers cooperate in having their own credit associa- 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 361 

tions. That is, farmers who can loan even small amounts 
place their savings in the charge of the association and 
from this fund those who need money can borrow at 
reasonable rates. Their interest payments become the 
compensation of those who deposit. Thus the business is 
managed without profit, only the necessary expenses 
being paid. 

Somewhat similar credit associations have already been 
begun in this country, the earliest being those of Jewish 
farmers in Connecticut and New Jersey (191 1). The 
movement is bound to spread. Probably, as in the case 
of other cooperative enterprises, mistakes will be made 
and farmers will suffer in consequence. But in the end a 
safe and workable system adapted to the needs of the 
farmers will be established. 

The successful cooperation of farmers in this, or any 
other, enterprise has much more than merely financial 
results. It gives them valuable business experience. It 
also helps to break down the feeling of isolation and to 
build up the feeling of loyalty and fellowship that should 
be strong in every community. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
RURAL LIFE 

The story of life on the farm "when grandfather was 
a boy" has fascinated many a city child. It is the tale 
of a happy household where every day brought stern 
duties and hard labor, but also many simple pleasures. 
In summer days both duties and pleasures had the taste 




"Grandfather's Home on the Farm" 

of free out-of-door adventure; while the winter evenings 
saw a jolly company gathered about the fireplace, with 
apples, doughtnuts, and games. The old-fashioned, 
roomy house was furnished in quaint style; the pieces 
were simple but substantial, such as are now repolished 
and placed in our best apartments. The parlor was a dim, 
musty room, with chairs and sofa upholstered in hair- 



RURAL LIFE 363 

cloth. The huge family Bible, with its records of births, 
deaths, and marriages, and the '^ what-not," with its curios, 
had prominent places. In the large kitchen, strings of 
dried apples and pumpkins were conspicuous. The bed- 
rooms were very cold in winter, but the bedding included 
plenty of woolen blankets and feather ticks. Religious 
life about the family altar was earnest; social life, with 
congenial neighbors and hosts of relatives, was free and 
wholesome. Husking bees, quilting bees, spelling matches, 
singing school, sleigh rides, and parties gave variety and 
interest. There were few books, but they were good. 
The weekly newspaper kept the older people abreast of 
the times and in touch with serious national problems. 

It is memories of such a farm and home life that cause 
many people of our own time to look back with regret 
upon the "good old times" that seem to have passed 
forever. For this description applies in the main to the 
years before and immediately after the Civil War, in the 
eastern and northern portions of the country that were 
well settled by American families. When agriculture had 
spread out upon the broad prairies, there was a change 
in the general character of farm lire. As the farms became 
more scattered and isolated, social events were less fre- 
quent. Rural population became more mixed by the 
coming of different nationalities; so there was a lack of 
the old-fashioned good-fellowship. The use of machin- 
ery, on the larger Western farms, and the growing of 
''money crops" made life, if not more strenuous, at least 
more hurried and unrestful. The farm home, too, be- 
came different. The cheaply constructed frame house 
was filled with cheap factory furniture; gaudy and in- 
artistic decorations appeared. This was no "'homestead" 



364 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

such as that of the olden time, where one generation fol- 
lowed another. This one might be ''sold out" at any 
time when a good price was offered. And as the homes 
became less substantial and less permanent, the best 
things of Ufe — those that appeal to the mind and the 
spirit — seemed in part to lose their hold upon the people 
who dwelt in them. The school and the church, and all 
the good things that are associated with them, came 
to occupy a less prominent place in the life of the 
community. 

Here is another picture of farm Hfe that will perhaps 
awaken memories in the minds of many. ''My recol- 
lections of the farm consist in going barefoot through 
the frosty grass along about daylight after the cows; in 
having to carry the wash water up a steep hill from the 
spring before breakfast, in order to get time to gather 
sheaves after the cradlers and binders; of the stubbly 
grain field the rest of the day; of having to go out 
after supper for another load of hay, and then of hunt- 
ing up the cows again and helping to milk them until 
after bedtime; of seeing my mother, sober faced and 
weary, dragging herself, day after day, about the house 
with her entire hfe centered upon the drudgery of her 
kitchen, and all the rest of the world a closed book to 
her; of seeing my father, broken down with long hours 
and hard work, finally relieved of the task of paying for 
the old place — just a few months before he died." This 
man hated the farm, because it had deprived him of a 
natural childhood and sweet home memories. 

It may be that descriptions such as this apply to many 
farm homes of our grandfather's time; and it is undoubt- 
edly true that in the more recent times there have been 



RURAL LIFE 365 

many farm households rich with pleasures and elevating 
influences. There are exceptions on both sides. Our 
present effort is merely to describe the two types. 

This will serve a useful purpose, for it is necessary to 
find reasons for a very important fact in our agricultural 
history: viz., that hoys and girls have been leaving the 
farm for the city in large numbers} This movement, while 
it has always taken place to some extent, has been partic- 
ularly rapid in the period since the Civil War. May not 
one reason be found in the changed character of rural life 
in this more recent period? 

Many have gone from country to city because hard 
physical labor was not to their liking. Many others, one 
of whom (Supt. L. D. Harvey) may be quoted, would say 
it was not because of the hard work. ''There was enough 
of that. It began when the stars were shining in the 
morning and did not end until they shone again at night. 
I know what long days and hard work mean. But that 
is not why I left the farm. / left it because hard work 
was all there was on the farm}'' 

It has been suggested, too, that fifty years and more 
ago farm life had as many social attractions as town life, 
if not more. After that period, the social life of the town 
became quickened, while that of the country suffered by 
comparison, and in places it actually declined. Hence, 
many young people have sought the lights, the attractions, 
and the opportunities for social life that the city offers. 

* It is maintained by some that those who have left the farms in the 
East have gone, not so much to cities, as to the farms in the West; 
while our cities have grown chefl}^ from immigration. The statement 
made above does not attempt to estimate the relative numbers going to 
cities. See Gillette, Constructive Rural Sociology. 



366 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

In the city, too, were better business opportunities for 
the country boy and girl. Steam power helped the city 
much more than it did the country. It built up the city 
industries — manufacturing and commerce — and gave 
business opportunities far beyond those that could be 
realized on the farm. 

There came a time, then, when the farmer's reputation 
fell in pubHc opinion — first in the opinion of the city 
dweller, and then in his own. He became a ''hayseed," 
a "clodhopper," or a ''Rube"; then the " funny picture " 
artist tried to show everybody how ridiculous and barren 
his life was. The farm boy became ashamed of his father's 
occupation and the mother dreaded to see her daughters 
stay on the farm and repeat her own experience. So the 
young people went to the city, and when the old folks 
died the farm was "abandoned." Or, the children having 
left, if the parents were "well off" they moved to the 
nearby town, where life was more comfortable. Here they 
spent their last years, continuing to deny themselves 
pleasures and luxuries, much as they had done in earHer 
years. 

It can readily be seen that the increased use of ma- 
chinery has helped the movement toward the city. Farm- 
ers' sons and hired laborers found that their help was not 
needed when machines did the work of human hands. 
At the same time there was a growing need and good pay 
for labor in the factories where these machines were being 
made, and in the business of selling them. So there were 
both good and poor reasons why the young people left 
the farm. 

One of the poor reasons was based on the feeling that 
the artificial sights and surroundings of city life are 



RURAL LIFE 



367 



superior to the natural ones of the country. There were, 
and still are, those who ''think that an electric light is 
more beautiful than a sunset; that shop windows are 
more beautiful than trees and flowers; that crowded 
streets are more beautiful than the open fields; that one 
of our modern plays is more beautiful than an out-door 




Modern Farm Home 

pageant." Of course, they are mistaken, and in these days 
many people are gaining better ideas upon the subject. 

In fact, we now hear much of a movement in the other 
direction, "back to the farm." City dwellers, tired of 
factory and office, are trying to become farmers, generally 
specializing in some product, such as poultry, berries, or 
vegetables. By the aid of the state governments, aban- 
doned farms in the East are being sold to occupiers. 
Great numbers have gone to the Far West, attracted by 
accounts of riches drawn from fruit orchards and irrigated 
farms. Many of these movers from city to country have 
met disappointment; others have made a success of the 
new Hfe. Certainly, there are ways in which the country 



368 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

is superior to the city. Here children Hve a more natural 
life; here less of evil is to be seen, and here one may find 
interest in a multitude of nature's secrets of plant and 
animal Hfe. These reasons will continue to draw people 
to the country. 

But the movement from city to country is of very small 
importance in comparison with changes that are coming 
about in the life of the country itself. One must not 
expect to cure the ills of rural Hfe by filling the farms with 
people from the city; nor, indeed, to cure the ills of city 
life by emptying its population into the country districts. 
The people of each kind of community must solve their 
own problems, and thus lift themselves above the bad 
conditions that trouble them. 

There has been no time in our history when so much 
progress was being made in this direction as at present. 
The conviction has been rapidly spreading, within recent 
years, that however important scientific agriculture, better 
business methods, and more 'profitable farming may be, 
there is another serious need — a better rural life. Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, in appointing the Country Life Commis- 
sion, struck the key-note of the matter when he said: 
''Good crops are of little value to the farmer unless 
they open the door to a good kind of life on the farm." 

The happy farm life of grandfather's time will never 
return; but conditions are now showing improvement in 
so many ways that we catch glimpses of a new rural life 
that may be even better than the old. The use of machin- 
ery has helped in this direction, and its influence is not 
yet at its height. The telephone has broken down, in 
part, the isolation of farm life; so have the rural free de- 
livery mail service and the parcel post. News from 



RURAL LIFE 369 

neighbors, letters from friends, easy contact with the out- 
side world, quick business transactions — all these make 
the farmer and his family feel that they have a part in 
the active life that stirs everywhere about them. These 
things give relief from the monotony of daily existence 
on the farm. They make possible many more social en- 
gagements. The daily newspaper and the popular maga- 
zine help to keep minds alert and so to relieve the strain 
of daily tasks. 

Special mention must be made of the automobile as a 
new influence in rural life. Its business importance has 
been enlarged upon in a previous chapter. It is also a 
great social force; for it brings the diversion that every 
hard worker needs as a means of keeping up his spirits 
and vitality. Its effect in stimulating the good roads 
movement is aiding very much those who cannot afford 
to own automobiles. 

Not the least of the many blessings which the auto- 
mobile has brought is the pleasure that it has given to 
the farmers' wives and daughters. Everyone who has 
thought about rural conditions has seen clearly the need 
of a better life for the women of our farms. There has 
undoubtedly been an improvement so far as the household 
work of the women is concerned: the removal of manu- 
facturing processes from farm to factory has relieved 
them of many burdens. One often wonders how the 
women of former days endured the severity of their work. 
But, indeed, many of them did not endure; they broke 
down under it. Machinery has helped women's work to 
some extent. There are sewing and washing machines, 
better stoves, apple-paring machines, incubators, milk 
separators, and many smaller labor-saving devices for the 



370 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

kitchen. But, after all, machinery has not helped house- 
hold work nearly so much as it has field work. Women 
have not had their share of the new investments for labor- 
saving machinery. There are yet too many farms like 
the one where the farmer runs a harvester drawn by six- 
teen horses, while the wife carries water in pails from an 
outside well to the kitchen. 

Not only has the Hfe of farm women in the past been 
overburdened with work and cares, but it has been also 
more monotonous and isolated than that of the men. 
They have had less help from the government and other 
outside agencies than have the men. A committee of 
Congress has reported as follows: ^'Our efforts have here- 
tofore been given in aid of the farm man, his horses, 
cattle, and hogs, but his wife and girls have been neglected 
almost to the point of criminaUty." Recognizing these 
facts, Secretary David F. Houston sent some 55,000 letters 
to farm women asking them in what ways their hfe and 
work could be helped. Many suggestions were made in 
the replies, but the one most often made was that the 
kitchen should be supplied with running water. 

Besides more conveniences, women in rural life need, 
and are beginning to have, more opportunities for social 
improvement and enjoyment. Reading clubs, mothers' 
clubs, domestic science classes, and other organizations 
are becoming more common. There is also more social 
work in connection with the Grange, the Women's Chris- 
tian Temperance Union, and the local churches. 

In ''grandfather's time," the country school was the 
equal, in most respects, of the city school. Both were, 
indeed, quite primitive; so the young people obtained 
their real education, aside from that of the ''three R's," 



RURAL LIFK 371 

from the work of home and field, rather than from the 
school. The growth of cities led to the improvement of 
their schools, while those of the country did not advance, 
and soon were far behind in the race. Indeed, the rural 
schools came to have fewer children and less mature 
teachers. In the newer parts of the country, too, school 
interests were neglected; for the farmer whose ambition 
it w^as to sell out and move on did not take pride in having 
a good school, and was not willing to pay taxes for it. 

In the regions of scattered farms, too, the school was 
not the center of social life that- it had been in former 
times. The spelling matches, singing schools, and debat- 
ing clubs were no longer events of the winter months, and 
''the little red schoolhouse" stood alone and dreary, ap- 
parently calling for the least amount of attention and 
expense that the law allowed. 

One reason for this unfortunate condition was the fact 
that the subjects studied in school by the boys and girls 
had very little relation to the work and interests of the 
farm. There was not much beyond the necessary amount 
of reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic that everyone 
must have. And much of the material dealt with in these 
subjects related to the city, rather than to the country. 
There were arithmetic problems in banking, stocks, bonds, 
and insurance, but none in farm accounting. The readers 
abounded in essays, orations, and stories that led the 
boy, in imagination, from the field to the factory, the 
ofi&ce, and the political platform. There was no study of 
nature in the country school course, and there was httle 
reference to its beauties or its laws in any subject taught. 
The history class learned chiefly of wars and politics. 
How many pupils in country schools realize even yet that 



372 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

their father's occupation has a history? In brief, it may 
be said that the subjects dealt with in the old-fashioned 
country school exaggerated the attractions of city life 
and thus led the pupils' attention away from the farm. 
This should be mentioned among the reasons why young 
people left the farm. 

Recent years have brought a change in the country 
school. It is now believed that there should be a close 
connection between the school and the daily life of the 




A School Garden 

community. Consequently, nature study, domestic sci- 
ence, manual training, and farm accounting are coming 
into the courses of study. The school helps pupils to 
carry on such work as that of observing, testing, and ex- 
perimenting at home. They now have bird houses, mu- 
seum collections, nature pictures, special day observances, 
school gardens, debates upon farm topics, and addresses 
from farmers. In a number of states the teaching of agri- 
culture is compulsory. Agricultural high schools and the 
preparation of rural school teachers are receiving much 
attention. 



RURAL LIFE 



373 



While for several decades the backward condition of 
country schools has been recognized, their improvement 
has been very slow. This is partly because of a faulty 
system of organization. Throughout the North, the 
schools have been under the ''district" system. This was 
inherited from early New England times. In the old 
New England town, the ''school committee" was com- 



w Hisii^^n^i 




4*^'*';!*l^'-*-" 



A CONSOLroATED RURAL SCHOOL IN INDIANA 

Observe the large number of children in attendance, and the wagons by 
which they are carried to and from school. 

posed of the selectmen (or town board) and the minister. 
They were men who took an active interest in the work 
of the school. Gradually, these officers became too much 
occupied with other duties to attend to all the phases of 
this work, so they simply managed its business affairs. 
As the system was carried into the West, with the pio- 
neers, the district contained fewer people, the school was 
too small, and the teacher was underpaid. 

In the West and in the South the country schools have 
been under the supervision of a county superintendent. 
The counties are so large that the superintendent can- 



374 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

not visit the schools frequently enough to observe the 
work. The best progress has been made where the schools 
of a town or of a number of districts have been consoK- 
dated. Then there can be better paid teachers, better 
buildings and equipment, and a more active school life 
in all respects. In many places pupils are transported 
from their homes to the school each day. This is being 
done at a lower cost than was necessary to sustain the 
district schools that have been discontinued. 

In many states laws have been passed obliging districts 
to improve the condition of their schools. Other laws 
give state aid for improvements and for higher teachers' 
salaries. Still others have raised the qualifications re- 
quired of teachers in rural schools. 

In former times, the rural teacher was, much more 
frequently than at present, a man. In those days, the 
teacher ''boarded round" and became an honored guest 
in one home after another. A deplorable change then 
came about. Very few men were willing to teach in small 
country schools; and boarding places for either men or 
women teachers became hard to find. In fact, the latter 
are still very often obliged to put up with most wretched 
accommodations. It is no wonder that the rural teacher 
longs for a city position; that she stays but a year in a 
place, and generally gives up teaching entirely after less 
than three years of service. These are bad conditions for 
the school and for the children. 

One plan that is making rural school teaching more 
attractive, particularly for married men, is found in the 
building of a school home for the teacher. Here he may 
be more independent, may lead a more natural life, and 
may become attached to his surroundings. In the State 



RURAL LIFE 375 

of Washington, more than one hundred such school homes 
have been built. 

The work of boys' and girls' clubs, mentioned in another 
chapter, is coming to have its natural center in the school. 
The teacher is the proper person to help organize and 
direct these activities, and the daily work of the school 
can be very naturally related to it. All of these forces, 
together with such helps as travelling libraries and young 
peoples' reading circles, will lift the rural school to a plane 
where it will again be as strong and effective as the city 
school is in its sphere. 

Like the school, the rural church also has declined, 
and for about the same reasons. As population spread, 
there came to be fewer residents in the average farm com- 
munity, the people had fewer interests in common, and 
the farm population became less permanent. In districts 
that were somewhat thickly settled, the people often built 
several small churches, for different sects, instead of unit- 
ing, as they should have done, to support one strong 
church. Instead of having a regular minister, many 
country churches were served only bi-weekly, or less fre- 
quently. With fewer church attendants, and fewer serv- 
ices, the social life of the church also became weaker. 

There now is an awakening to the evils of these condi- 
tions; many men are studying the problem of the country 
church, and much work of improvement has been begun. 
Ministers are studying scientific agriculture so that they 
may take part in the work of farmers' organizations. 
Courses for their preparation are given in some univer- 
sities and colleges. Conferences of country ministers are 
called, for the purpose of discussing country church 
problems. The Young Men's Christian Association, 



376 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

which began to plant its organization in lUinois in 1872, 
now has seventy-five county secretaries engaged in this 
work in various states. 

With the revival of school and church in the country, 
much will be accomplished to make rural life as attrac- 
tive as life in the city. There is scarcely any kind of social 
organization that may not find a place in the country: 
reading and study clubs, musical clubs, lecture and enter- 
tainment courses, dramatic societies, athletic contests, 
and harvest festivals are perfectly practical and are being 
introduced in many rural communities. The summer 
^'Chatauqua" has become common in many sections. It 
takes the place, in some respects, of the old-fashioned 
*'camp meeting." It brings music and entertainment of 
a high order; and many of the foremost lecturers of 
the day are secured for its courses. Nebraska, Kansas, 
and Missouri each have about fifty such courses; Iowa 
and Illinois each have about two hundred. 

One of the strong virtues of the old-time farm life was 
the place it gave to recreation and play, for both old and 
young. These are necessary in the life of any healthy 
person. They are coming back into the farm life of this 
new era, and are helping to elevate it. 

A great obstacle in the way of bringing all these social 
benefits to rural communities is the spirit of independence 
that American farmers have shown from the beginning. 
This spirit is partly a result of their isolated lives. They 
have looked out for their own personal interests first and 
most strongly, and have had too little regard for the life 
of the community. Now, just as the practice of land 
butchery is being broken down by more intensive scien- 
tific agriculture, so the old isolation and narrowness of 



RURAL LIFE 377 

farm life must give way to a new spirit that will draw 
the country folk together for their own social benefit. 
This can come about through organization under skillful 
leadership. 

Rural communities are being helped to organize them- 
selves by the work of teachers and ministers, and by help- 
ers sent among them from colleges. Recently (1913) the 
Department of Agriculture has begun to extend help in 
this direction, through the newly established ''Office of 
Markets and Rural Organization." Prof. T. N. Carver 
suggests, in connection with this work, that every rural 
community should have " committees on education, sani- 
tation, recreation, beautification, and household econom- 
ics, and these committees should be regarded as quite 
as important as those dealing with business questions." 
He outlines the work proposed for such committees.^ 
All the many things that he mentions can be accomplished 
when leaders come forward to guide the people in working 
together for a ''more abundant life." Beginnings are 
being made in all these directions, and they are topics of 
interest in our agricultural history, but the real work lies 
in the future. 

i Year Book of the Department of Agriculture, 1914, pp, 92, 127-128. 



CHAPTER XXIX 



PROSPERITY AND PROBLEMS 



Thirty years ago this country was in the midst of 
a period of agricultural depression; those were ''hard 
times" for farmers (see Chapter XIX). Railroads were 
being built into the West; population was advancing 
rapidly upon the new, rich soil; crops increased faster 
than the demand for the products; prices were low and 
falling lower. Before the year 1900, a new era of pros- 
perity for farmers began, which we still enjoy. The 
supply of land ready for cultivation approached exhaus- 
tion, and immigration poured in from foreign countries; 
hence population caught up with the production of foods, 
causing the prices of agricultural products to advance, 
as is seen from the following table. 



Year 


Corn 


Wheat 


Cotton 


Pork 


Sugar 


Tobacco 


per bu. 


per bu. 


per lb. 


per bbl. 


per lb. 


per lb. 




cents 


dollars 


cents 


dollars 


cents 


cents 


1895 


47 


•67 


7-44 


12. 


3-23 


8.7 


1900 


45 


.80 


9.2 


12.5 


4.8 


8.7 


1905 


59 


1.02 


9.8 


14-5 


4-3 


9- 


1910 


66.8 


1. 12 


15 


23-7 


4.2 


10.8 


1914 


79 


1.09 


II. I 


22.7 


3.8 


12. 



In the decade 1900-19 10, the population of cities in- 
creased three times as fast as rural population. 

The effect of these new conditions is also seen in the 
increased value of farm land, which more than doubled in 



PROSPERITY AND PROBLEMS 379 

the same years. In 1900 the average value of a farm was 
$3,563. In 1 910 this value had increased to $6,444. 
These figures include not only the land itself, but also the 
buildings, machinery, improvements, and stock. Mr. 
James Wilson, who was Secretary of Agriculture from 
1897-1913, called attention to the remarkable agricul- 
tural advance of the country during that time. When Mr. 
Wilson took office, the farm products of each year were 
worth $4,000,000,000. When he retired they were worth 
more than double that amount, S9, 500,000,000 being the 
figure for 191 2. Only a part of this increase is accounted 
for by larger crops, since there has also been a great in- 
crease in the prices of farm products. 

Besides increased crops and greater values, many other 
changes have come about in our agriculture in recent 
years. Changes in methods have been referred to con- 
stantly in these pages. One of the greatest of these is 
seen in the increased use of mixed farming throughout the 
West. Where once were seen wheat fields, embracing 
thousands of acres, there now are seen much smaller 
fields producing a variety of grains; and these are inter- 
spersed with orchards, pastures, and crops of clover and 
alfalfa. Where once a crop failure meant ruin, we now 
find the farmers secure from such disaster, because their 
capital is invested in a dozen crops instead of one. The 
growth of stock and dairy interests is adding still greater 
security to intelligent farming. 

For those who wish to continue the old methods of 
extensive farming, with single crops and speculation in 
land values, the door to western Canada is wide open, 
and thousands of farmers from the Middle States have 
gone there. The Canadian government and the railroads 



380 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

advertise the attractions of the Northwestern wheat lands. 
The farmer who needs help in getting a start may obtain 
a loan of money at low rates for a long term. This move- 
ment to Canada is but a continuation of that which began 
at the Atlantic and, rebounding from the arid belt of the 
Rocky Mountains, was deflected into this fertile region 
to the north. 

Fruit growing is a phase of agriculture that deserves 
treatment by itself. The spread of this industry has been 
made possible, not only by scientific discoveries, but also 
by improvements in transportation and by the use of 
refrigeration. Refrigeration in the shipment of perishable 
crops was first tried about the year 1866, the fruit being 
packed with ice in chests. Soon afterwards the idea of 
refrigerator cars was worked out, and by 1872 this method 
had proved successful. 

Refrigeration made possible the rapid development of 
truck farming — one of the remarkable features of re- 
cent agriculture. Truck farming on a large scale had its 
beginnings in the decade between 1840 and 1850, in the 
region about Norfolk, Virginia. Along the coast from 
Norfolk south, it is possible to raise some garden crops 
through the winter. At first, shipments were made to 
the Northern cities by water, the journey from Norfolk 
to New York occupying thirty-six hours, and only a few 
hundred packages being taken by each vessel. In the 
eighties, all-rail shipments began; carloads of oranges 
and strawberries were then first brought from districts as 
far south as Florida. 

At present, many special districts in the South have 
been developed, where particular crops are raised, such as 
watermelons in Georgia, and sweet potatoes in eastern 



PROSPERITY AND PROBLEMS 381 

Maryland. In addition, all the common vegetables and 
small fruits are produced in immense quantities through- 
out the year for Northern markets. Consequently, dwell- 
ers in cities and the larger towns may enjoy fresh fruits 
and vegetables all through the winter months. This 
means much for the general health of the people. 

Extensions and improvements in market gardening 
have kept pace with those in other special departments 
of agriculture. The use of glass houses for raising vege- 
tables has been extended to a total of many thousands of 
acres. The employment of the electric light in green- 
houses for the forcing of crops is another remarkable 
aspect of this work. 

With the changes in this great era of prosperity there 
have come many problems. Some of these are being 
solved by science and by the use of machinery, as de- 
scribed in previous chapters. Others, like the demand for 
better credit facilities, and the need for cooperation among 
farmers, are now under discussion by officials, public 
bodies, and associations interested in agriculture. Some 
questions, quite as serious, have not as yet been squarely 
met and cannot well be solved by the passage of laws. 

One of these is the question of tenantry. To-day, 
more than one-third of our six million farmers rent their 
farms instead of owning them. In 1880, but one-fourth 
were tenants; so the number of tenants is increasing faster 
than the number of farmers. One reason for this condition 
is found in the great rise of land values within recent 
years. A laborer now must have considerable capital 
before he can buy a farm; so he is often obliged to be- 
come a tenant, if he would be a farmer at all. In the 
Middle West, a great many farmers whose lands have be- 



382 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

come valuable move to town and live upon the income 
received from renting their farms. Besides, the increase 
in land values has caused many city dwellers to purchase 
farms, hoping to sell later at a profit; in the meantime 
they rent their farms to tenants. 

It has always been the pride of America that here any- 
one who wished could own a farm. This was one of the 
main inducements that started the tide of immigration 
to our shores in colonial times; and it has ever since 
been the attraction that has brought the sturdiest peoples 
of Europe to become citizens of the great Republic. In 
contrast with this condition, we have often pointed to the 
poor tenants of European countries as living under very 
undesirable conditions. Are we now in danger of seeing 
much of our agricultural population brought into a state 
of dependence upon landlords? 

Such is the problem. Looking at its brighter side, one 
may readily see that becoming a tenant, like mortgag- 
ing a farm, is often the first step upwards; for it may 
give the man who has hitherto been a wage-earner the 
opportunity he needs of acquiring land faster than he 
could otherwise do it. With the maintenance of free poli- 
tical institutions and a strong social spirit, tenantry may 
never become with us the evil that it has been in foreign 
countries. 

A more serious problem faces the American farmer 
to-day — that of the scarcity of labor. This is one reason 
why many farmers have preferred to rent their farms, 
and why others have sold out and moved to town. It is 
not a new problem, for back in colonial times it was im- 
possible to keep farm hands; they went off to get land 
for themselves, and only those who were in compulsory 



PROSPERITY AND PROBLEMS 383 

service (indentured servants and slaves) could be held 
for any considerable time. 

But in recent years the problem has become more 
acute. The growth of cities has emphasized the differ- 
ences between rural and urban life. The farm has come 
to seem relatively less attractive; the growth of manu- 
factures has enticed laborers from the farms by offers of 
higher wages. These are not necessarily bad signs, for 
they may represent the striving of individuals for a higher 
standard of living. 

The conclusion follows that, in order to obtain a supply 
of the best farm laborers, farmers must offer inducements 
that equal those of city life. In recent years farm wages 
have risen; but this is not a complete remedy. Social 
life on the farm must be made more attractive if the la- 
borers are to be held. The increased use of machinery and 
the keeping of fine stock call for a type of skilled laborers 
for farm work. This demand will best be met when homes 
are provided on farms where married men may live com- 
fortably as hired workers. This is the condition under 
which workmen prove to be most satisfactory in city 
employments — why not on the farm? 

Farmers have helped to solve the problem of efficient 
laborers when they have banished the saloon from their 
communities. This has been done throughout a large 
portion of the country during recent years. The prohi- 
bition movement results not only in improving moral 
conditions; it is also a simple business proposition of 
saving that which was previously wasted. It is a step 
toward efficiency similar to that which is taking place in 
many other employments. Neither the manager nor the 
worker in any serious business enterprise can afford to 



384 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

lessen his capacity by habits that undermine his physical 
or moral strength. Says the Country Life Commission 
(Report, p. 44), ''The saloon is an institution that should 
be banished from at least all country districts and rural 
towns, if our agricultural interests are to develop to the 
extent to which they are capable." 

But prohibition is only the first step toward reform. 
There should be brought into rural life other social oppor- 
tunities that will take the place of those offered by the 
saloon. 

Another remedy for the scarcity of farm laborers has 
been sought in the employment of immigrants fresh from 
foreign countries. Many people of certain nationalities — 
Greeks, Poles, Italians, and Portuguese — seem to prefer 
living in cities. At the same time they can be hired in 
large numbers to work during a part of the summer upon 
certain crops. They become berry pickers, or work in mar- 
ket gardens, or in sugar beet fields. As farm laborers for 
steady employment, newly arrived immigrants are not very 
satisfactory, on the whole. They are ignorant of American 
ways and often require much instruction and guidance. 

On the other hand, there are in the United States many 
farm communities composed of foreign-born peoples who 
have bought land. The story of these foreign agricultural 
groups would make a book in itself. Their members — 
Swiss, Bohemians, Germans, Scandinavians, Poles, Ice- 
landers, ItaHans, and others — have, like the first colo- 
nists of the Atlantic coast, striven in poverty and against 
adverse circumstances to found their homes. They have 
progressed; their children have become thorough Ameri- 
cans, and have often risen to places of honor in their 
native states or in the service of their country. 



PROSPERITY AND PROBLEMS 385 

At no time in our history has there been such interest 
in the study of agricultural problems as there is at pres- 
ent. Not only the colleges and the agricultural periodi- 
cals, but business men's associations and newspapers and 
magazines of all kinds are dealing with these questions. 
Numerous ''conferences" have been held for their discus- 
sion in various states. As a result, several state country 
life commissions have been established to study further 
all questions connected with farm life. 

The conviction is now widespread that farmers can 
best work according to scientific methods when they have 
the direct assistance of experts. Hence, plans have been 
made for placing an agricultural expert in every county 
of the United States. A prominent mercantile firm has 
offered to contribute one thousand dollars to each of one 
thousand counties, provided the latter will raise an equal 
amount. 

In December, 1913, the Committee on Agriculture 
of the House of Representatives offered a plan for the 
granting of government aid to this movement. The out- 
come was the passage of the Smith-Lever act of May, 
1914. Under this law. Congress is to appropriate $10,000 
annually to each state, or a total of $480,000. In addition 
to this, appropriations are to be made as follows: $600,000 
the second year, this amount to be increased by $500,000 
each year for seven years. These added appropriations 
are to be made upon the condition that each state makes 
appropriations of similar amounts. At the end of the 
seven years the total annual appropriation by Congress, 
if all the states respond in the amounts expected, will be 
$4,580,000. So the total amount of money available each 
year from these sources will be $9,160,000. 



386 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 

For what is this vast sum to be used? The plans made 
for its expenditure involve in the main a continuation and 
extension of the farm demonstration work already under 
way in the South, as described on pages 319-322. They 
involve the placing in every one of the 3,000 counties of 
the country an expert to act as general advisor for the 
farmers, and actually to show them on their own lands 
what scientific farming will accomplish. The expert will 
also conduct experiments and contests, and will assist 
the farmers in the difficult business of farm management. 
Besides, they are expected to stimulate the social side of 
farm life; to organize clubs, conduct meetings, and su- 
pervise the study of agriculture in the schools. Here is a 
vision of wonderful things to be accomplished. This 
law may mark an epoch in the history of American 
agriculture. 

A sign that is even more hopeful for the future of good 
farming in America is the movement that has been already 
described for the organization of boys' and girls' clubs. 
This movement has extended throughout the land; the 
clubs are said to include 250,000 members. In this way 
boys and girls are being educated to become farm workers 
who will need little expert guidance. They are being 
taught to observe, as the basis of all scientific knowledge; 
they are learning the value of cooperation in agriculture; 
they are becoming intelligent students of all the prob- 
lems that face the farmers of to-day, and that must be 
solved by the farmers of to-morrow. 



INDEX 



Acadians, 176 

Agricultural colleges, 284-287, illus. 

and map 
Agricultural education, 297-299 
Agricultural extension, 298-299, illus. 
Agricultural journals, 94 
Agricultural societies, 93-94 
Alfalfa, 311 
Alleghany Mountains, 100; trails 

through, 102, map 
Almanac, Maine Farmers', 155, illus. 
American Dairymen's Association, 279 
Animal husbandry, 266-270 
Animal Industry, Bureau of, 307-309, 

illus. 
Appleby, John F., 2 10-2 11 
"Ark," 107 
Arlington, 96 
Atwater, W. O., 286-287 
Austin, Moses, 177 
Austin, Stephen, 177 
Australian ladybird, 297, illus. 
Automobiles, influence of, 355, 357, 369 

Babcock milk tester, 275, illus. 
Back country, map of, 70; cotton cul- 
ture in, 130-13 1 
Back firing, 170 

Bacteriology, applications of, 294-296 
Baldwin apple, 288 
Bare fallowing, 48 
Beaver, 26, illus. 

Berkshire Agricultural Society, 98 
Binder, 2 10-2 11 
Biological Survey, 316 
Blue Ridge, 100 
Boll weevil, 317, illus. 
Boone, Daniel, 71-74, loi, 176 
Boonesboro, 103, illus. 
Border ruffians, 220 
Botany, apphcations of, 288-291 
Bouweries, 34, illus. 



Boy life, in colonial New England, 31- 
32, 59-62; in early West, 120-122; 
on prairies, 171-172 
Boys' corn clubs, 320-321, illus., 386 
Bradford, Governor William, 24-25 
Breeders' Associations, 270, 279, 289-290 
Bryan, William J., 233 
Bull, Ephraim, 288 
Bunch grass, 237 
Burbank, Luther, 290-291 
Butter making, 273-275, illus. 

California, Spanish missions of. 179- 
181; map, 179, illus., 180; Americans 
in, 181-182; discovery of gold in, 
182; early agriculture of, 182-183; 
irrigation in, 336 

Campbell, H. W., 344 

Camp meetings, 1 20-1 21 

Canada, migration to, 379-380 

Canadian Northwest, 272 

Carey Act, 3,5^ 

Cartier, Jacques, i 

Cattle, in Virginia, 19; in back coun- 
try, 74-75; herding, see Range and 
Ranch; improved breeds, see Animal 
husbandry 

Champlain, Samuel de, i 

Charleston, S. C, 41-42, map 

"Chautauquas," 376 

Check-rower, 251 

Cheese, making of, 275-277; factories, 
277-278 

Cheese-press, 116 

Chemistry, applications of, 291-295 

Chemistry, Bureau of, 314 

Church, rural, 375-376 

Churka, 125 

Churns, 273, illus. 

Cider, 60, 116 

Circuit rider, 120 

Cities, movement to, 365-368 



388 



INDEX 



Civil War, relation to agriculture, 200- 
208; how caused, 203; armies of, 
203-204; conditions during, 204-208, 
323; women's work in, 204-205, illus. 

Claim-jumpers, 168 

Clark, George Rogers, 104, 175 

Clay, Henry, 94 

Clydesdales, 269, illus. 

Codling moth, 296, illus. 

Coleman, Norman J., 306 

Colonial agriculture, general features 
of, 47-56; in North and South, 57- 
69; land ownership, 47-48; methods 
of cultivation, 48-51; live-stock, 51- 
52; farm laborers, 53-55; summary 
of conditions, 55-56 

Colorado, irrigation in, 336-337 

Conestoga horses, 94 

Coonskin, 119, illus. 

Cooperation, movements in farming, 
231, 347-352 

Cooperative demonstration work, 319^ 
322 

Corn, grown by Indians, 4-5, 8; stored 
and prepared, 5-6; meaning in 
Englandj 13; planted in Virginia, 
13-15; in Plymouth, 24; importance 
of, 25-26; shelling and grinding, 
115-116, illus.; planter, 250-251, 
253, illus.; harvester, 253-256; 
husking, 254; sheller, 254; sled 
cutters, 255, illus.; silo, 255-256; 
laws of England, 152 

Cornell University, 218 

Cotton, in Virginia, 19; rise of, 124- 
135; in colonial times, 125; varieties 
of, 125-126; cleaning, 125 ff.; during 
Revolution, 125; invention of cotton 
gin, 125-129, illus.; manufacture of, 
129-130; cultivation of, 130; spread 
into back country, 130-13 1; spread 
into West, 131-135, map; effects on 
South, 133-134, 196-200, 201-202; 
cost of production, 194-196; effect 
of blockade, 203 

Cowboys, Western, 238 

Cowherd, 31 

Cowpens, 74-75 

Cradle, grain, 144-145 

Creameries, 273, 278 

Credit, system in South, 325-326; 
rural, 358-361 



Crisis of 1837, 164 
Cultivator, 49, 249, illus., 250 
Cumberland Gap, loi, illus., 106 
Cumberland Road, see National Road 
Custis, George Washington Park, 96 

Dairying, in Middle West, 271; in 
Wisconsin, 272, map; history of 
processes, 272-278; development of, 
278-281 

Dakotas, wheat in, 215-216; settle- 
ment of, 224 

Dale, Governor, 15-16, 19 

Delaware, Lord, 14 

Department of Agriculture, buildings 
of, 305, illus.; creation of, 306; 
growth, 306-307; bureaus, 307-318; 
experiment farm, 312, illus.; publica- 
tions, 317-318 

De Soto, Ferdinando, i 

Desert, Great American, 219 

Desert Land Act, 242 

Dexter, 268 

Diseases of animals, 307-308; of 
plants, 310 

Disk-plow, 249 

Douglas, Stephen A., 201 

Drill, 49, 250-251 

Dry farming, 342-344, illus.; Congress, 

344 
Dugouts, 220 
Durum wheat, 311, illus. 
Dutch oven, 120 
Dutch West India Company, 34 

Early Rose potato, 289 

Egg car, 308-309, illus. 

Election of 1896, 233, map 

Electricity, on farms, 261 

Eliot, Jared, 51, 93 

Ellsworth, Henry L., 305 

Emery's thresher, 151, illus. 

Empresarios, 178 

England, land holding in, 30; agricul- 
ture in, 47-50, 53; trade with, 64-65; 
attitude during Civil War, 206 

Entomology, applications of, 296-297; 
Bureau of, 315-316 

Erie Canal, 163-164, illus. 

European farm life, 224-225 

Experiment stations, 286-287, 299-300 

Exploration, for' new plants, 310-312 



INDEX 



389 



Fall line, 71 

Fallowing, 48 

Fanning mill, 151 

Farm labor, 382-384; management, 

345-347 
Farmers' alliance, 232 
Farmers' bulletins, 318 
Farmers' institutes, 285-286 
"Farmers' Week," 299 
Fences, in Virginia, ig, illus.; on 

prairies, 167; wire, 241, note 
Fence-viewers, 32 
Fertilizers, 292-295 
Figs, 315-3^6 
Fireplace, no, illus. 
Flatboat, 107, illus. 
Flax, in Virginia, 19; in New England, 

58-59, illus. 
Flax brake, 58, illus., 59 
Forest reserves, 244 
Forest survey, 316-317 
Franklin, Benjamin, 93 
Free coinage of silver, 233-234 
French Huguenots, 39 
French settlements, 173-177; 174, map 
Frontier, rapid movement in West, 224 

Gang plow, 249 

Gasoline power, 259-261; tractors, 
259-261; 260, illus., 265 

" Gates," 32 

George III, King, 98 

Germans, 38^39, 206 

Gideon, Peter M., 288-289 

Girls, on New England farm, 31-32; 
clubs for, 321, 386 

Glidden, J, F., 241, note 

Goatherd, 32 

Grange, 230-232; cooperative move- 
ments, 348-349 

Grasshopper plague, 221-222, illus. 

Great American Desert, 219 

Greeley, Colorado, 336 

Greenback party, 230 

Greene, Mrs. Nathaniel, 125-126, 128 

Guernsey cattle, 270, illus. 

Habitants, see French settlements 
Half-faced camp, 108 
Hampton Institute, 328 
Hanson, N. E., 311 
Harrodsburg, 103 



Harrow, 114, 142, 249-250 

Hatch Act, 287 

Hay loader and stacker, 252, illus.; 

fork and carrier, 252; tedder, 252- 

253; baler, 253 
Header, 247, illus. 
Head right, 20-21 
Hemp, 59 

Herding, see Range and ranch 
Hereford cattle, 94 
Hetchel, 59, illus. 
High schools, agriculture in, 300-301, 

illus. 
Hoard, W. D., 272 

Hogs, in Virginia, 19; colonial, 52, illus. 
Hog-reeve, 32 
Holstein cattle, 270 
Home life in New York State, 153-158; 

on prairie farms, 165-167; on farms, 

363-364, illus., 367, illus. 
Homestead law, 206-207, 229, 242 
Hominy, 6 
Horse, in Virginia, 19; geological 

times, 266; colonial times, 266-207; 

early racing and records, 267-269; 

Morgan breed, 267, 268, illus.; draft 

breeds, 269 
"Horse-hoe," 49, 249 
Houston, David F., 370 
Houston, General Sam, 178 
Hudson, Henry, i 
Hudson Valley, 70 
Hudson's Bay Company, 184 
Huguenots, 39 
Husking, 254; bee, 120 
Hussey, Obed, 146, 148-149 

Illinois country, 173-176, 174, map; 
prairies, 161, map 

Immigrants, during Civil War, 286; 
after, 224, 384 

Implements, used by Indians, 3-4, 
illus.; late improvement of, 144; see 
Machinery 

Indentured servants, 20-21, 23, 37, 53- 
54, 71 ; at Mt. Vernon, 87-88; 
moving West, loi 

Indian country, 219 

Indians, agriculture of, i-ii; village, 
2, illus.; implements, 3; crops, 3-4, 
9; tillage, 3-4, 7; storage and prepa- 
ration of corn, 5-6; products, 6; 



390 



INDEX 



work of, 7; Iroquois, 7-8; Western, 
8-9; irrigation by, 8-9; religion, 
lo-ii; lack of progress, 1 1 ; practices 
adopted by whites, 1 1 ; troubles with, 
16, 19, 24; methods, 55; on frontier, 
7i> 75; trails, loo-ioi 

Indigo, in Virginia, 19; in South 
Carolina, 41, 44^45 

Interstate Commerce Act, 232 

Irish, 206 

Irrigation, by Indians, 8-9; in South- 
west, 332; in Utah, 332-336, illus.; 
in California, 336; in Colorado, 336- 
337; under Carey Act, 338; under 
Reclamation Act. 338-340; projects, 
339, map; results, 340-342 

Jamestown, Va., 3, 11-13, 15 
Jeflferson, Thomas, interest in sheep, 

98-99; work on plow, 137-138 
Jenckes, Joseph, 53 
Johnny cake, 119 
Jonathan apple, 288 

Kaffir corn, 299, illus. 
Kansas, settlement of, 218-223 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 211, 219 
Kaskaskia, 104 
Keel boat, 107 
Kelley, O. H., 230 
Kentucky, 102-104, 112 
Knapp, Seaman A., 319, 329 
Knotter, 211, illus. 

LaCroix, E. W., 214-215 

Ladybird, 299, illus. 

Land, how acquired in Virginia, 20-21; 
ownership in colonies, 47-48; how 
obtained in West, in-114; claims 
and cessions of states, 112; survey, 
1 1 2-1 14, illus.; sales of, 167-169; 
question of free land, 206-207 

"Land butchery," 56 

Lane, John, 141 

Lane, John, Jr., 142 

Latchstring, 109 

Lexington, Ky., 103 

Lien system, 325-326 

Lincoln, Abraham, 108, 117 

Linsey-woolsey, 119 

Lister, 251, illus. 

Live-stock, in Virginia, 19; in New 



England, 27, 31-33; in early West, 
1 1 6-1 17; see Animal husbandry 

Livingston manor, 36 

Livingston, Robert, 97 

Locusts, see Grasshopper plague 

Log house, how built, 109-ni, illus. 

"Logrolling," iii, 120 

London Company, 12, 15-16, 19 

Long Island, 37 

Long, Major Stephen, 217 

Louis XVI, 97-98 

Louisiana, French in, 176-177; pur- 
chase of, 177 

Lucas, Colonel, 42, 44 

Lucas, Eliza, 42-45 

Macaroni wheat, 311 

McCormick, Cyrus, early life, 146-147; 
work upon reaper, 147-149 

Machinery, The Age of, 246-265; 
reaper improved, 246-247; header, 
247, illus.; invention and adoption 
of improvements, 248-249; cultiva- 
tors and plows, 249; harrows, 249- 
250; drills and planters, 250-251; 
haying machinery, 251-253; corn 
harvesting machines, 253-256, illus.; 
windmills, 256-257; traction engines, 
257-261; on farm, 369-370 

McLoughlin, Dr. John, 184 

Madagascar, 39 

Madison, James, interest in sheep, 98 

Maine Farmers' Almanac, reproductions 
from, 155 

Maize, see Corn 

Manhattan Island, 34 

Manors, 36, 39 

Manure, 292-295; spreader, 256 

Maple sugar, 59-60, illus. 

Marietta, Ohio, 112 

Marketing, 350-358 

Marsh, C. W. and W. W., 210 

Marsh harvester, 210, illus. 

Marsh, Dr. John, 181 

Maryland colony, 38-39 

Meeker, Nathan C, 336 

Merino sheep, 96-99 

Mexican War and cession, 135 

"Middle buster," 251 

Middle Colonies, 34-46 

Milk, sale of, 280; Babcock tester, 275, 
illus. 



INDEX 



391 



Milking machine, 274, illus. 

Milking, old methods, 213-214; stones, 
illus.; invention of purifier, 214; of 
rollers, 215 

Minnesota, wheat in, 215 

Missions, Spanish, in Texas, 177; in 
California, 179-181 

Mississippi River trade, 117-118 

Missouri, early settlers, 175-176; Com- 
promise, 134 

Mohawk Valley, 37, 70 

Morgan horses, 94, 267, 268, illus. 

Mormons, 332-336 

Morrill Acts, 284-286 

Morrill, Justin L., 284 

Mortgages, on farms, 360 

Mountain whites, 131 

Mount Vernon estate, 76-77; over- 
seers of, 81; slaves of, 81-84; in- 
dentured servants of, 87-88; fishing 
on, 88; stock on, 88-89 

Mower, distinguished from reaper, 
251 

Muir, John, life on Wisconsin farm, 
165-167 

Napoleon I, 98 

National Road, 108, map, 163 

Nebraska, settlement of, 219-223 

Negroes, 23; quarters, 190, illus.; 
in South after Civil War, 324- 
326 

Newbold, Charles, 136-137 

New England, early agriculture, 24-33; 
crops, 26-27; live-stock, 27, 31-33; 
towns of, 27-31, maps; tillage, 30; 
homes, 33; trade, 54; small farms, 
57-61; products, 57-59; farm boy, 
59-62; farmhouse, 60; home occupa- 
tions, 61-62 

New England Emigrant Society, 219 

New Hampshire, 70 

New Netherland, 34-37 

Newton, Isaac, 306 

New York, colonial, 36; State, home 
Hfe in, 153-158 

Nitrogen, 292-295, illus. 

North, compared with South in colonial 
times, 57-69; general character of 
agriculture in, 68-69; 200-201; 
during Civil War, 205-206 

North Carolina, 39 



Northern Spy apple, 288 
Northwestern Dairymen's Association, 
279 

Ohio Company of Associates, 112 

Ohio River, settlements on, 104, 118, 
illus. 

OUver, James, 141-142 

One-mule farm, 326-327 

Orange production in Virginia, 17 

Ordinance of 1787, 119 

Oregon, joint occupation, 184; early 
traders, 184; missions, 185, map; 
migration to, 185-186; early agricul- 
ture, 186-187; settlement of boun- 
dary, 187 

Pacific Coast Indians, 9 

Packing meats, 245, 270 

Patrons of Husbandry, 230-232 

Patroon system, 35-36 

Penn, William, 37-38 

Pennsylvania colony, 37-38, 70 

People's Party, 232-233 

Percheron horses, 269 

Phosphorus, 292 

Pigeons, in early West, 116 

Pilgrims, 2-3, 24-26 

Pinckney, Col. Charles Cotesworth, 42 

Pinckney, Mrs. Eliza Lucas, 45 

Pine barrens, 71 

Pioneer farmers of the West, 100-123 

Pirogue, 107 

Pitts thresher, 152, illus. 

Plantations, in Virginia, 21-22, map; 
tobacco cultivation, 62-64; other 
occupations, 66-67; hospitality, 67- 
68; in back country, 131; in West, 
131-135; cotton production, 189- 
19 j; differences among, 189-190; 
buildings. 190-191; implements, 192; 
work of slaves, 191-196; planter's 
life, 196-197; character of agricul- 
ture, 198-199; during Civil War, 204 

Plant Industry, Bureau of, 309-313 

Planting and setting machines, 261-262, 
illus. 

Plant introduction, 310-312 

Plow, colonial, 52, 136; in early West, 
114; Newbold's iron plow, 136-137, 
illus.; Wood's, 138-139, illus.; Web- 
ster's, 139-140, illus.; prairie, 140- 



392 



INDEX 



141; 163, 167, illus.; steel mold- 
board, 141-142; soft center steel, 
142; sulky, gang, and disk, 249 

Plymouth, Mass., 2-3, 11, 24-26, illus. 

Poor whites, 68 

Population, distribution of in 1800, 105, 
map; in 1820, 132, map; in 1830, 
1840, 164, map; in i860, 1870, 228, 
map; in 1880, i8jo, 229, map 

Potash, III 

Potassium, 292 

Potatoes, white, 6; sweet, 6; in colonial 
times, 58; Burbank, 292 

Pound keeper, 32 

Prairie agriculture, 159-172; breaking 
plow, 140-143, 167, illus. 

Prairies, description of, 159-162; 
reasons for late settlement, 162-163; 
rapid settlement, 163-165; life on, 
169-172; fires, 170; homes, 224-225 

Pre-emption laws, i6g 

Prices, decline of, 1870-1894, 229-230, 
232; rise of, 1895-1914, 378 

Processioning, 22 

Prohibition, rural, 383-384 

Prosperity, agricultural, 234 

Puncheon floors, no 

Puritans, 26-27 

Quilting bee, 120 
Quincy, "Father," 254 
Quit-rent, 37, 39 

Racing, early, 267-269 

Railroads, in West, 171; to Mississippi 
River, 207-208; effects in West, 
212-213, 229; grievances against, 
230; Interstate Commerce Act, 232 

Rainfall in United States, 341, map 

Rakes, revolving, 252; spring-tooth, 
252; side-delivery, 252 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 1-2 

Rambouillet, 97 

Ranch, see Range and ranch 

Rancheria, 180 

Range and ranch, 235-245; early loca- 
tion, 74-75, 235; in Kentucky, 103, 
235; in Texas, 235-237; in Rocky 
Mountains, 237-238; work of, 238- 
240; relations with Indians, 240-241; 
new cattle breeds, 241; cattle kings, 
241-242; fencing ranches, 241-242; 



methods of obtaining land, 242 ; rela- 
tions with settlers, 242; sheep raising, 
243-245; changes in methods, 245 

Reaper, invention of, 144-150; im- 
portance of, 149-150; old types, 
147-149, illus.; effect upon Civil 
War, 206; improvements, 246-247; 
distinguished from mower, 251 

Reclamation Act, 338-340, map 

Rectangular survey, see Survey 

Redemptioners, 37 

Red River Valley, see Dakotas 

Refrigeration, 270, 380-381 

Republican party, 202-203 

Revolution, American, 95 

Rice, wild, 9-10; in Virginia, 19; in 
South Carolina, 39; in Louisiana, 
330; Japanese, 31 1-3 12 

Roads, Office of PubUc, 317, illus.; 
cost of poor roads, 352-353; in early 
times, 353; improvements, 353-354; 
working out taxes, 354-355; building 
by Department of Agriculture, 353- 
354, illus.; effect of automobiles, 
355-357; effect of rural free delivery, 
357 

Roanoke Island, colony on, 1-2 

Rolfe, John, 15 

Roosevelt, Theodore, quoted, 368 

Rotation of crops, in England, 48 

Rural life, 362-377 

Rural organization, 377; schools, 301- 
302 

Rusk, Jeremiah M., 306 

Scandinavian immigration, 224 

School gardens, 372, illus. 

Schools, rural, 301-302, 370-375, illus.; 
district system, 373; county system, 
373-374; consolidated, 373-374. iHus. 

Scotch-Irish, 39, loi 

Scythe, colonial, 53 

Seeders, see Drill 

Seeds, collection and distribution, 305, 
313, illus. 

Separator, 273-274 

Sheep, in Virginia, 19; in colonial 
times, 94-95; first improved breeds, 
96; merinos, 96-99; ranches, 243- 
245, illus.; new breeds, 269; in- 
spection of, 308, illus. 

Shenandoah Valley, 73 



INDEX 



m 



Shorthorn cattle, 94, 270 

Silk, in Virginia, 17-19; in South 
Carolina, 45-46 

Silo, 255-256, 279, illus. 

Slavery, in earl}' West, 119; fixed on 
South by cotton, 133-134; under 
Missouri Compromise, 134; in Texas, 
134; in Mexican Cession, 13s 

Slaves, in colonies, 23, 54; work of, 
63-64; in Southwest, 133-134; eman- 
cipation by Washington, Jefferson, 
and Randolph, 133; importation 
forbidden, 134; on Mt. Vernon estate, 
81-84; work of field hands, 192-194; 
treatment of, 194; value, 195; 
classes, 1 91-19 2 

Slave trade, colonial, 54 

Sled corn harvesters, 255, illus. 

Smith, John, 3, 14, 16 

Smith Levci Art, 385-386 

Smith, Governor Thomas, 39 

Soap, 60 

Sod house, 221, illus. 

Soils, Bureau of, 314 

Sorghum, 204 

South, before Civil War, 189-199; 
large plantations in, 189-197; small 
farms in, 198; the New South, 323- 
331; during Civil War, 323; after Civil 
War, 323-326; systems of negro 
labor, 324-326; low stage of agricul- 
ture, 326-327; improvement, 327- 
331 ; agricultural education in, 330-331 

South Carolina, 39-46; rice in, 39-40; 
indigo, 41-45; description of, 43-44 

Spain, merinos in, 96-99 

Squanto, 2-3, 24 

Squatters, 168-169 

"Stall," 254 

Stamp Act, 95 

"Stations" in Kentucky, 103 

Statistics, Bureau of, 314 

Stone implements of Indians, 3-4, illus. 

Succotash, 6 

Sugar, maple, 1 21-122; in South, 330 

Sulky plow, 249 

Survey system, 11 2-1 14 

Sutter, John, 181-182 

Swine, see flogs 

Swineherd, 32 

Swiss, 39 

Syndic, 175 



Teachers, in rural schools, 374-375 
Telephone, cooperative companies, 349- 

350 
Tenantry, 381-382 
Texas, 134-135; Spanish in, 177; 

settlement by Americans, 177-179; 

free from Mexico, 178; admitted to 

Union, 179 
Threshing, in early West, 115; by flail, 

1 50-151; machines invented, 151- 

152; steam power applied to, 

258 
Timothy, 92, illus. 
Tobacco, raised, by Indians, 7; in 

Virginia, 15-17, 54; laws upon, 17; 

used in payments, 21; cultivation of, 

62-64; shipment of, 64-65 
Tomahawk claims, 11 1 
Tomatoes, in colonial times, 58 
Town meetings, 32 
Towns, in New England, 27-31 
Townshend Acts, 95 
Townshend, " Turnip," 49 
Township, diagram, 113 
Traction engines, steam, 257-259, illus.; 

gasoline, 259-261, illus.; electricity 

applied, 261; other inventions, 261- 

262; effects of, 262-265 
Travel, to the West, 106-107; to 

Southwest, 131-133 
Trolley lines, 358 
Truck farming, 380-381 
Tull, Jethro, 49, 143, 249 
Tuskegee Institute, 328, illus. 

Vancouver, Ft., 184 

Van Rensselaers, 36 

Vaguer OS, 180 

Vegetables, raised by Indians, 6; 

raised under glass, 381 
Vermont, 70 
Vincennes, 104 
Virginia, early agriculture, 12-23; first 

crops, 12-14; live-stock, 14, 19; 

common store, 15; tobacco, 15-17, 

,62-64; semi-tropical products, 17- 

19; acquisition of land, 20; laborers, 

20, 23; indentured servants, 20-21; 

plantations, 21-22, 62-67; slaves, 23; 

Royalists, 54; lack of towns, 64; 

mansion houses, 65, illus.; small 

farms, 67 



394 



INDEX 



Washington, Booker X-. 328-329 

Washington, George, as farmer, 76-91; 
management of estate, 78; ideas of 
farming, 78-81, 84-85; slaves, 81- 
84; experiments, 86-87; indentured 
servants, 87-88; trade with England, 
89; land holdings, 90; recommends 
agricultural boards, 90, 93; sheep, 
95-96 

Watauga, loi, 106 

Watson, Elkanah, 97 

Wealthy apple, 288 

Weather Bureau, 314-315, map 

Webster, Daniel, farm, 139; plow, 140, 
illus. 

Weekly News Letter, 318 

West, pioneer farmers of, 100-123; 
early settlement, 102-104; motives 
of settlers, 104-106; means of travel, 
106-108; log houses, 108-111, illus.; 
methods of farming, iii, 114-117; 
methods of obtaining land, 111-114; 
live-stock, 116-117; trade, 117-118; 
home Ufe, 1 19-120; social life, 120- 
121; boys' occupations, 120-122; 
classes of farmers, 122-123; democ- 
racy, 123; spread of cotton, 131- 
135; rapidity of settlement, 224 

West Indies, trade with, 54, 58 



Wheat, cultivation on prairies, 209; 
effect of machinery, 209-210; move- 
ment of belt, 2 1 1-2 13, maps; milling, 
213-215; in Minnesota, 215; in 
Dakotas, 215-216, maps, 217-218; 
in Kansas and Nebraska, 218-222; 
various belts, 222-223; the single 
crop in the West, 226-227; over- 
production, 229-230; durum or 
macaroni, 311 

Whitney, Eli, 125-129 

Wilderness Road, 106 

Willamette Valley, 74, 185, map 

Wilson, James, 304, illus. 

Windmills, 256-257 

Wire grass region, 71 

Wisconsin, change in agriculture, 271- 
272, map 

Women, work of, during Civil War, 
204-205, illus.; rural conditions 
affecting. 36^-371 

Wood, Jethro, 138-139 

Year Book of Department of A gricuUure, 

318 
Young Men's Christian Association, 

375-376 

Zoology, applications of, 296 



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